Coin Laundry
by Envious sky
Summary: Tifa's a cop running away from a past she'd rather forget, when she takes in a teenage girl down on her luck her world begins to come apart. People's facades start to fall, their lies rise to the surface, and the past she'd left behind comes back to haunt her full force. M for drug use/violence Zerith, yuffentine, eventual Cloti
1. What a day

**(6,479 words) For your sakes I shall inform you that the following is a little conversation between the positively 'delightful' voices in my head.**

**Tifa: Hello, and welcome to 'Coin Laundry'. My new pretty story.**

**Serah: I made the name! It's wonderful and irrelevant!**

**Tifa: Uh...yeah, anyway, I've got just one or two things to say before we get on with the story, mainly just a quick mention that the set up of Midgar is a little different. Being that there is no ShinRa buiding and Seventh heaven is on the plate, that happened as I was writing I felt like it is all.**

**Serah: That's because you are an idiot.**

**Arianna: Agreed cept you both are, now don't be excited 'cause no one is going to read this.**

**Serah: Shut up Arianna.**

**Arianna: You shut up!**

**Serah: No you shut up!**

**Tifa: If no one wants to risk their brains melting I recommend you ignore these two. Anywho, This story came randomly into being because Serah was complaining that 'We could do worse'. I'm clueless as to why, as for our other VII fic the main character is an alchoholic rape victim, so you can understand my confusion over what Serah was saying.**

**But I relented and let her create this, so apparently that means that if she ever comes up with some new insane thing while writing I'm not allowed to say 'No that's going too far', because this story is essentially made for going too far.**

**So I've given you good warning if this gets too much for you all. If any one read this of all of course. Arianna is being a bitch saying it's not going to be read, but you'll make me and Serah happy if you do and give me nice precious reviews. sometimes it's like I see the hits but my mind tells me it's not being read as long as I don't get reviews. so if you haven't already figured out that Arianna is personified Paranoia while you know now and I'm saying this now, giving me reviews (Not to seem desperate) is going to help a mind toturing oneself to stop, at least for awhile.**

**We'll enough of that, enjoy this new likke thang delightfully named the irrelevant name of 'coin laundry'.**

**Disclaimer: We'll I don't own this, yet, but I called up square enix this afternoon. And now I'm wondering, but does continuous laughter mean no? Because that's what happened when I rang them up last time to ask if I could legally say that Vincent Valentine is my husband, and I haven't gotten a word from them yet about that.**

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**Chapter 1) what a day**

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Tifa stepped off the treadmill, exhausted from the morning workout. If her shift started late it was common for her to go to the gym to help pass the time before hand. The treadmill like usu-al ended up as the last part before she left the gym. The black haired woman wiped the sweat off her forehead with a rag placed on a chair next to her she'd had there for just this use.

She headed in the direction of the gyms locker rooms to retrieve her bag and normal clothes; she was half-way there before one of the most common things that got on her nerves happened, an idiot guy calling out to her. She tried not to face palm.

"Oi, girly! Why don't you come over here?" A man's voice cut through her thoughts, and she'd been enjoying them so, she had only one thing to say to him. Turning on her heel to look back at the tall brunette, she scowled at him irritated and yelled back across the room, "Not your type. I'd say sorry but I'm not." She got on with what she was doing. But the man, being dull, would have none of that. He strode across the room and grabbed her arm roughly, twisting her to face him.

"Oh, I'd have to say you are." He chuckled with an almost evil undertone to his words.

Tifa rolled her eyes at his comment and batted his hand away, "Pfft, body wise maybe; that don't count for much," she spat; enjoying the look he gave her back.

She pulled her frame out of his grip and stormed out of the room, right before getting out of earshot the obnoxious stranger, attempting to hide his actual thoughts on the outright rejection claimed, "Ha, well you're too high and mighty for me anyway."

She heard no more from him after that. He was the usual idiot, she dealt with it every day; she didn't care much for them now. Thanks to her job she'd learnt some damn good sayings she could say to oafs that tried to say one word wrong to her.

…

Tifa walked the usual path back to her apartment, an onlooker or two gave her a look but it was easily ignored. The pairs of eyes that locked on to her either belonged to a pervert or one looking down on her for her choice of clothing. She did admit that the silver cocktail dress was revealing for sure, but it didn't actually reflect on her personality unlike many with the same fashion sense. Sometimes it wasn't even the dress that got the looks from the scrutinising people; it could be the un-brushed hair (hey it was long it took more to take care of, plus she didn't have her brush at the gym) or the tattoo on her left shoulder. She saw nothing wrong with it, it was simply the name 'Synda' written in fancy letters, what could be wrong with that? Obviously they just didn't know the meaning behind it.

The slender woman rounded a corner on the concrete path and hopped up onto the steps of a small pub, the words 'Seventh Heaven' written in faded letters out the front. It wasn't much, just a few tables and chairs with the counter at the back, but it was a popular place to settle down and relax after a hard day at work with a couple drinks and friends. A friend had started working here five years back and since then she'd been living up in one of the spare rooms upstairs. She'd gotten to know the staff well since then, and constantly they'd asked if she wanted to act as a bartender if she had some time up her sleeve. They would say a 'pretty young thang' like her would certainly attract the customers. Sure it was partly a joke but still she'd always told them she was too tired. Most nights she spent at work anyway, she had no time.

Tifa strode over to the hallway at the back, purple converses making a 'tap' sound on the wood floor. She headed into the hallway, seeing Barrett and his daughter, Marlene in one of the rooms, she gave each a quick wave before heading up the stairs to her own room. She didn't have enough time to see if they waved back. Her room was at the end of the hallway, she walked to it with a skip in her step; any annoyances she had to deal with today were forgotten as she got there.

As she opened the door silently she was greeted by the sight of a small brunette boy sitting on the couch, distracted by the cartoons on the TV. He was holding a beaten old teddy bear with a mouth full of chocolate, the proof being all the brown smearing his chubby cheeks and the half-finished purple packet by his side.

"Hello Synda, you miss me?" She spoke up to grab his attention. Right away bright blue eyes caught onto hers and he beamed, face alight with happiness.

Synda clambered off the green couch, dropping his teddy onto the ground he ran to the woman standing by the door. "Mamma!" he squealed jumping into her arms.

Tifa picked the boy up and hugged him tight; his tiny hands clung to her black strands resting on her shoulders.

"So you missed me did you?" She asked, giggling at his adorable actions.

"Ya, ya!" He laughed, resting his head on her shoulder smiling.

Tifa loved seeing her little son smile like that; he was such a precious little guy. He'd been small for his age ever since he was born; earlier on it was because of him being two months premature but as he got older he simply didn't grow very much at all. His chocolate hair had lightened from his mother's own black, his face, though chubby at his young age was more like his mother's than anyone else's. Only his blue blue eyes were different, as hers were of a reddish brown. She'd been asked many questions thanks to it, but she wasn't ready to grace it with an answer, she didn't even like to talk about it in her head.

The sound of the door opening behind her snapped her out of her momentary trance, causing to ruin a perfectly good moment. She turned round to see who had done it, seeing it to be the only other woman taking up residence here.

"Oh jeez, I didn't interrupt anything did I?" Jessie laughed, seeing how Tifa was looking at her, holding her son in her arms.

Yes. "No, no it's alright." Tifa slowly placed her son back down, so he wrapped his little arms around her right leg, listening in on the conversation.

"But you looked like you were enjoying yourself." Jessie laughed again. Dropping her phone and handbag on the kitchen counter with a bunch of grocery bags.

Tifa rolled her eyes at the girl; she always did this if she walked in when she herself was having some 'mother-son' time with Synda.

"Oh drop it. Now pray tell me why you left my son by himself? Must've been a bit because he helped himself to your chocolate stash" She crossed her arms and gave her friend a stern look, nothing wrong with her being a protective mother, she didn't have much and what she did was important to her.

"My chocolate stash! How dare him!" The smaller girl yelled, but then quickly realised that comment would get her nowhere; as it wasn't actually answering the question. The way Synda seemed to cower as she yelled hadn't helped.

"We had no food, so I went to get some. It was only twenty minutes I swear!" She flapped her arms in apology, the attempts to.

"Why didn't you take him down to Barrett, at least then he could have had Marlene to play with. I wouldn't trust a child to be by themselves, who knows what they could get up to?" She said with her arms still crossed.

"But he didn't get up to anything did he?" Jessie said while stepping over to the grocery bags and digging out an apple, which she promptly began eating.

"Sides eating your chocolate?" Tifa rolled her eyes at her friend trying so hard to get out of this.

Jessie visible stiffened from the black haired woman's comment proving her wrong just like that.

"Yes, sides that." She face-desked the counter.

"It's all over his face." Tifa chuckled, leaning down to ruffle Synda's short hair. When Jessie looked back she could see the evil way Tifa was smiling at her, she was having fun with this now!

"Don't you have to get to work?" the girl grumbled, taking a bite out of the red fruit.

The response was immediate; Tifa stood straight up straight like she'd been zapped by an electric rod.

"Oh god you're right, I've got to get ready." She panicked before kneeling back down to give Synda a quick hug.

"Mamma's got to go now, but I'll see you tomorrow and I'll take you out for ice cream. Does that sound fun?" She smiled as the little boy hugged her back and nodded, giggling in his cute babyish voice.

"That's good then." She beamed and got back up making a run for her room.

As she got her blue uniform on, she could still hear Jessie talking to herself, something about 'damn washing machine's still broken.'

It was her turn to do the washing if memory served her correct, looks like she'd have to go to that old Laundromat down the street. Tifa was glad it wasn't her turn, she had had especially bad luck at that place, the entire place had been looking at her last time; it'd been obnoxious. She hated it.

Tifa tied her hair up with a black hair tie and exited her room, ready for her shift; she said her goodbyes to Jessie and Synda and she was off.

…

She had to remember to thank Jessie later for reminding her of work, or else she would be late for her next shift. But that didn't mean she was completely out of the danger zone, if she didn't hurry a little she could very well be late. If that didn't make it worse the fact her car was still in the shop certainly did. She jumped down the stairs two at the time rounding the bend she stood at the door way of Marlene's strawberry coloured room, seeing that Barrett was indeed still in there.

"Hey Barrett?" She asked, attempting to make her sound innocent. She had her doubts that he would trust the young woman's driving skills enough to let her borrow his car but she had to try.

"Yea, what is it Tiff?" His gruff voice answered her as he stood up from his daughter's bed; the seven year old looked downcast as her father moved away.

"Would it be alright if I borrowed your keys so I can drive to the station? It will only be a short drive, nothing will happen I promise!" She looked almost childish as she leant against the door, begging with puppy-dog eyes.

The tank of a man gave her a sceptical look, not going to fall for her act. "Oh yea, it'll be fine jus' like your last un." He folded his arms, having trouble slightly thanks to that massive gun arm. Honestly whenever someone new to the town saw it they called the police. But the force was already well acquainted with the man and knew he wasn't going to cause havoc with it: he'd gotten it during a darker period of his life and didn't have the Gil to replace it with a proper arm. So he always got off.

"It wasn't my fault it blew up on me, it was old. Older than me." She added on for emphasis. She'd been half way back from a late night shift glad that'd she would be finally able to rest in her beloved bed and something just went wrong. A big bang noise happened and it stopped moving, after getting help from a kind passer-by she got it working again but it took a million years for sure. Well whatever happened to it, it was in the shops and that was that.

"Heh, blew up on ya." Barrett chuckled at her lack of knowledge over her own car's problems.

"Hey! I'm an officer not a mechanic." She pouted; he just laughed harder over her childish face. It wasn't what you expect from someone in uniform, usually they act far more seriously.

"Kay, you can borrow it, but you betta make sure nothing happens kiddo." He rolled his dark eyes at her and left the room to go find his keys. Tifa looked back to see the pouting child on the bed. To prevent herself from being made to feel bad from the sad look she quickly said, in hopes if cheering her up, "It's alright, he'll be right back." She rested her head against the wood of the door frame. As if being summoned by the thought Barrett came up beside her and dropped his car keys into her waiting palm. She mouthed a 'thank you' to him before running to the garage. She feared being late with a boss like hers.

…

Tifa strode into the large garage; it was filled with three cars and boxes at the back. One of the car spaces was empty thanks to that very car being stuck in the mechanics. She stepped over to a beaten up Shanghai red Holden, which she knew to be Barrett's, and twisted the lock. Opening the door she pulled herself in and adjusted the seat belt to her slender frame. Fixing up her hair so she wasn't sitting on it she turned the car on, listen to the roar of the engine as she placed her head against the head of the seat. The entire car was vibrating; she felt it all along her back.

She sighed outwardly as the radio turned on automatically, straight to a love song. Stupid love songs; sure this particular one gave it a more realistic version of love by telling of all these different problems with the relationship, but it still had a happy ending. How dumb, life doesn't have happy endings, only bad ones.

She almost wanted to slap herself, why was she thinking of this! She needed to get to work. Sighing deeply she reversed out of the space and drove out of the dark garage. The light pounded against her eyes and she needed a moment to adjust, she'd spent a minute too long in there. Blinking twice she put the pedal to the metal and began driving to the station. Outside pedestrians walked with friends and relatives, laughing and chatting to each other, window shopping, generally having a good time. The sun shone above gracing the world below in its golden light, with a shadow here or there.

It felt happy, but it didn't make the woman driving past feel happy, she didn't have joyful moments like that anymore, she gave it up. The people who she considered friends didn't get to see her much because of work and her so commonly attending the gym round the bend. Only Synda could make her feel anywhere near happy, she would never let anything happen to the boy, he was her world.

She rounded a bend in the road, getting a sudden fright when she noticed someone running in the most peculiar outfit across the road with a bundle in her arms. Hastily she slammed her foot onto the brake and stopped just in front of the hurrying woman. The girl, with long hazel brown hair jumped at the sight of the red car, which unnoticed to her, was less than a metre away from hitting her. Visibly she was frightened and her arms were shaking, bad enough for her to drop what she was holding. A troubled face looked down on the scattered, from what Tifa could now see, pile of clothes and picked them up as quick as she could. Ignoring the fact that she may have people behind her, Tifa hopped out to assist the girl in collecting the garments.

"Are you alright?" The tall woman asked swiftly, giving a concerned look to the worried woman to her side.

"Ah, yeah. Don't worry that Laundromat is cursed." She nodded her head in its direction. "This is the third time this has happened." She continued collecting the fallen clothes, concentrating more on that than the conversation. She stood back up, the clothes held in a neat bundle in her trim arms.

"Thanks for your concern but it's best I leave. See ya!" She waved childishly before crossing all the way over and jumping into a very expensive-looking sports car. Whoa, if she has a car like that why did she need to go to a Laundromat to get her clothes clean? And to be honest they didn't look like they would have been cheap either. What a weird girl.

Looking back at the car she'd placed in the middle she quickly noticed two drivers yelling at her to make a move on. Oh jeez she knew she'd make a line of cars end up waiting on her. Hurriedly she hopped back inside the car's interior and got it started, hoping that that little encounter hadn't gone and made her late.

…

Tifa ran with haste up the steps of the station, hoping to god she hadn't made herself late with that distraction before, but for that she was clueless as Barrett's car's clock was broken, it'd said it was six o'clock. Well that was at least two and half hours a front. Opening the doors wide she stepped in, and ended up a breaths length away from one of her colleagues.

"Oh, Lockhart, geez; look where you are going next time." The lanky man chuckled. He was cold and emotionless to the public but to other officers he would show as much emotion as possible, unless of course they were on duty with him and were surrounded by a bunch of buffoons. He would be then forced to go into full on officer mood.

"Hello Sia, about to go on patrol?"

"Yeah, yeah." She scratched the nape of his neck absent-mindedly, shoving a hand into his pants pocket; like he always did when he was thinking. Everyone was yet to figure out what having a hand in a pocket had to do with thinking, it seemed like he was clueless himself, it was just a habit built into him from who knows when.

"And you are going with me!" He beamed. Sometimes he reminded her of a puppy, always hypo. Had to wonder if he had multiple personalities considering how different he could be outside than in here. It border lined on the creepy.

"What? But I was supposed to go with Henry!" She complained over the problem with what he'd just said.

"Yeah, you were. But you are late; he went with Jackson. And so now you are with me, go check in or whatever so the chief knows you're here but then you are coming with me." He patted her on her small shoulder then walked out the door, standing on the other side twiddling his fingers.

Tifa sighed; he was an idiot sometimes. She would have preferred going with Henry even if he would be silent most the time. He was a very serious man; he never went out of officer mode like everyone else. Marching over to the chief's desk she found the man going through what looked like a pile of papers, had to hope it was actually work related this time. Last time she'd seen him do this he was searching for his daughter's permission slip that he had to sign. Why had he even brought it to work? And yet he was the chief, had to question.

She coughed to make herself known, as he as very caught up in whatever he was doing now. Dark eyes rose up to see her brown one looking down on him with slight curiosity.

"Ah, Lockhart, good to see you're here. I'm busy at the moment but I've reassigned you to be with Sia, Henry has already left." He informed her before getting back to his search.

"Yes so I've already been told. But one question if I may?" She leaned down, black hair falling off her shoulder; her confusion more obvious, "What are you searching for?"

He looked up to her for a second before moving his gaze to the papers. His look reminded her oh so much of the look Synda gave her when she had quite literally caught him red handed with his hand in the cookie jar.

"Ah, it's not very important." He muttered in an almost nervous tone. "Just some um, work stuff…yes work…stuff." He shooed her off with a movement of his hand.

Yes of course it's 'work stuff', not. How on earth was he her superior? But she dismissed the thought; she had more important matters to concern herself with. With a silent sigh she exited the station to go find Sia, expecting he had already gone to the car waiting for her.

…

She found him in the parking lot in one of the two police cars parked there. She knocked on the window so she wouldn't surprise him when she got in; he'd had a miniature nap in the driver's seat. He awoke right away to see her with the slightest of grins planted on her face. Giving her a mock scowl, which she rolled her eyes at, he opened the door for her, even if it wasn't locked.

"Madam." He bowed his head, granting her to roll her eyes at his actions again.

"Don't Sia, I'd rather you treat me just like everyone else. No kind of special treatment because I'm a woman." She clambered into the seat and did up the seatbelt. As she rested her back against the car seat she noticed the way he was trying not to laugh.

"Sia?" He questioned, he had his head in his hand with a bright red face. "Why are you laughing?" She leaned forward with a more than questioning expression.

"I have no bloody idea." He managed to get himself under control, albeit a chuckle or two and that his face remained red. "But you know I'm not going to give you special treatment. I don't even believe in that 'no hitting girls' rule. Everyone's a person, so why have these rules?"

Tifa sighed at him as he twisted the key, car coming to life shown from the sounds of the thundering engine.

"But that's thanks to work isn't it?"

"Maybe." He shrugged and drove the car out of the lot.

…

The patrol went as per usual for a while; they sat in silence, Sia having gone into his 'officer mode'. They drove past a number of streets, waiting for something to happen. It was possible to go through an entire patrol without one bad thing happening, but that was insanely uncommon. This was Midgar, half the city was made up of bad people. Out of the car was a bright sunny day, very unusual for the polluted city. So many people were outside at the moment. Shame everyone in the slums wouldn't be able to enjoy this rare moment of fresh sunlight, but that's what they got for living under the plate. It was a mess down there, she was glad she never really had to go down there, especially having to live there. The only times she had to go down to the slums was for work, when some kind of trouble was going on. Fights were common; they were poor people, it could happen for a million different reasons.

And right now she felt like her thoughts had caused what happened next to happen.

Ruining the half an hour of little nothings finally a call came in of some kind of disruption in town that needed police assistance. Tifa answered as Sia had his hands firmly on the wheel. She'd heard of other towns where the calls would be instant speaker phone, but Midgar didn't care much for their police force and they quite seriously had average mobile phones put into cars for those on patrol. It was a pain, it would save so much time if both could hear the information at the same time, but these phones were so god damn old they didn't even have the speaker mode option.

"Lockhart here, what's the problem?" she answered formally, and was without delay answered by a deep gruff voice, for which she knew belonged to one of her superiors. "A domestic disturbance down in the sector 4 slums. Same couple from last month; haven't learnt a thing at all. Bring them in, it looks like we need to use it bit more force to ensure this doesn't occur again. Address is 32 Perry Street. Good luck, you'll need it." He hung up.

Same couple from last month? Did Sia know something about this?

"A domestic disturbance down in the sector 4 slums. Said it was the 'same couple from last month' and that we needed to bring them in; wished us 'good luck' too. Do you have any idea why?" She asked in a voice not so full of emotion rather than question. Brown eyes became more curious as the blank man became less and less blank, and slowly his face turned blue.

"Sia?" She asked, leaning forward she waited for some kind of response.

"Just wait Lockhart, you'll see. That good luck is needed."

…

They drove faster than the other cars on the highway down to the slums, apparently from what she could tell; mainly from Sia's lapse of his 'officer mode' the couple must've caused some kind of trouble previously. And from how exactly her superior had described it she got the feeling it hadn't only been once before, but many.

They got off the well treated black concrete road onto the dirt and gravel of the slum's streets. Immediately the drive, thought already fast, became rough and near-painful from the bumps that made the wheels go off the road with each touch. This was why she hated them, how could these people stand it down here? It stank, there was no sunlight and everything looked like a hurricane had hit it dead on. Seriously, more than even the police force, the slums needed money. But the leaders of Midgar were too caught up making better and larger buildings on the plate, too blind to see all the places the cash should've been heading. Well this wasn't the slums for just nothing.

Sia drove past a number of run-down houses in sector 5 heading to their destination. This part, though just as run down, didn't seem to be as bad as the rest of the slums. As her eyes gazed out the window to pass the time before they arrived, she spotted a multitude of small children running amok, no adults in sight; it looked to be they were orphans. What a shame, they looked like good kids. The others living in the sector appeared to be either parents of some of these kids, as most didn't have any, or elderly. For reasons she didn't fully understand, her attention was drawn to a woman sitting on the steps of a flowery house, she looked so lonesome there by herself. It made her want to help her, despite her being a perfect stranger; she knew that people here had it worse than the middle-aged woman that had caught her attention. At least this woman had a home to live in, so what made her not be able to look away?

The only thing that got her to look away was when Sia drove around a corner, and the woman was out of sight. It was here they exited from sector 5 and into sector 4. Almost right away did she wish to go back. The housing was quite the same, yet those living here were a world different from the inhabitants of its neighbouring sector. They were a bunch of sorry-looking human beings wandering around almost aimlessly. This was the worst she'd seen from down here. It was the first time she'd touched this place of Midgar, and she wished she had just gone on without seeing one bit of it. The road was made bumpier by broken beer bottles and garbage from destruction-ridden houses. The whole place stank of alcohol and who knows what. She wasn't surprised that the couple they were meant to bring in lived in this hell of a sector; it made so much damn sense.

Sia turned into Perry Street; a back street around what could've once been called a built up area, but it was too run down now to class it as one. Still it was a hard space to spot, caught between the only two buildings that could even dare go near the plate. It was amazing they didn't fall down and crush the surrounding area. Driving along the small path, the houses turned into more and slightly more house-like. As they got up to the driveway of 32, Tifa could only guess why this place had the best houses she'd seen down here yet, and also question severely the scene playing out in front of her eyes. A tall lanky woman was holding up a chunk of steel, presumably found in the surrounding area, and was threatening to beat a cowering man, holding up a cracked white washing basket for protection. How in the world?

"Oh god I see what you mean about them. Jeez, how did this happen?" She spoke through gritted teeth.

"Last time she'd actually managed to get her hand on a katana, no idea how but luckily for us it was so rusted she never managed get the blade out of the sheath. But that didn't stop her from using it as a bat."

Tifa grimaced at his words, this woman was a nut. She shook the thought out of her head, right now she needed to be serious, no lapses in concentration just because this woman was confusing. She and Sia opened up the each their respective doors at the same time and stepped out before this situation got further out of hand.

"Oi, what's this here?" Sia called out in his deep voice, he could make himself intimidating when he chose to be. The grumpy woman stopped after she gave the washing basket another whack, ripping a hole in its bottom.

"This stupid guy won't stop playing 'round with those slutty little school girls, and I'm going to go make him pay. Now scram!" She wracked the basket again, causing a whine to rise from the poor man hiding beneath it.

"I didn't do it, I didn't do it! Please believe me! The mates were just kidding wid ya!" He pleaded pitifully.

"Look I couldn't give a shit about the details of however the hell this has happened!" Sia cut in, "But this is the sixth time in the last two months of violent activity being claimed to have come from you two. Now I and Officer Lockhart here are going to bring you in!"

He stepped forward menacingly. The woman dropped what she was holding but that didn't mean she was going to do as the policeman said. No way in hell.

"Who are you to say that to me?" she screeched with clenched fists.

"A scary police officer from the plate." The man on the ground mumbled dryly.

His previous attacker sent him a venomous glare, which to he flinched at and made it clear he would stay quiet.

"Listen madam; we need you to come with us. Resist and we'll use force," Sia continued. But the woman was blind to the possible danger to her his words spoke of.

"I'm not going anywhere until this man is dead!" She stomped furiously on the ground.

"That's what you said last time. We have reason to believe you will not go through with that."

"And how do you know I won't?" She pointed her finger at him, eyes aflame.

"Because this would be the sixth time you've said the exact same thing. Now come with us before any trouble ensues."

"No way in hell is I coming with you bitches!" she yelled, and dashed out of the yard.

"Shit, Lockhart go after her, I'll deal with the husband." Sia commanded, and she did just that.

She may or may not have heard the man cowering under the broken washing basket mumble something about 'How is she supposed to run with boobs like those?' But it was ignored, like most comments of that nature. To say she was sick of them was quite the understatement. Shoving the thought away she made after the woman who had gotten up a good distance between her and the front yard. But she was presumably, from her looks well into her middle ages, the fact that she'd managed this was feat enough, but in no reality was she going to outrun a police officer in her prime.

It wasn't much of a chase at all, if the ground hadn't been so slick under her boots it would have been even faster. Predictably this woman had been chased through this very area many times by other officers and from experience she could better her footing on the wet terrain, but she was no marathon runner.

Tifa had run past four houses by the time she caught up, she was right on the woman's heels. The moron was in no way going to slow down any time soon, she was amazingly fit for one of her age, and the officer was in no mood to wait for her to lose her breath. Grabbing her arm first she forced the middle aged woman backwards onto the ground. She hit it hard, her back taking most of the impact made by the fall. Tifa went easy on her by knocking her down in a way like that, but it would still cause pain to erupt.

Kneeling down she removed a pair of handcuffs from her pants pocket, secured them around the woman's wrists and pulled her back up onto her feet. She was making a groaning noise as she was walked to the car, but as for most things for the particular officer by her side, it went ignored. Well if she didn't want to be caused any pain she shouldn't have run. Her husband pretty much hopped straight into the back of the car on Sia's word, so no problem on his part.

Upon reaching the vehicle the woman was shoved into the back and the two officers got in the front after making sure the doors were indeed closed properly (The cars were all getting on in years and their doors didn't always serve overly trustworthy). All the way back to station, as the couple couldn't physically harm each other, the wife argued with him all the way.

Oh joy, the life of those married for far too long.

…

The wife, luckily for all inside the car, went utterly silent as they reached the plate. As Tifa suspected, it may well be the first time she'd come up upon it. It wasn't uncommon; some people grew too used to the lack of sun down under the plate and just wouldn't be used to seeing it. In severe cases people even became scared of the sun and sky; when she first came here a girl had asked her 'if the stars were going to eat her'. It got that bad.

The woman was in awe of her surroundings, and for the last half of their journey to the station they didn't have to deal with her logic less complaining. It was bliss for their headaches but there was however one disruption on the drive back. A horde of kids and teenagers ran across the street on a green light and Sia was forced to slam his foot on the brake. They managed to stop just before anyone was hit but that didn't stop the car behind them banging into the boot. And if their ears served them right, it just created a chain reaction of cars doing just that.

"God damn you stupid kids! Wait for the cars to stop!" Sia screamed out the window, glaring. Well he was a policeman, laws were important to him.

But the kids kept coming, it was a red light now but it sure hadn't been at the start, the line of cars with their faces shoved into the backs of the one in front of them were clear proof of that. The people running across were laughing and pushing around; it was a mess of a crowd, every now and then it got so bad people were being pushed onto the front of the police car. She didn't even know if she should've been surprised when the woman from the morning was pushed into the bonnet.

"Umph!" She groaned and rubbed her head and stomach which were the places that's taken the impact. Slowly reality came back to her and she realised what she was lying against. She jumped at the sight of the car and was screaming an apology, but they could barely here it thanks to the crowd behind her.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry!" She flapped her arms in some weird way of ask for forgiveness.

Slowly the crowd dissipated behind her and the lights turned green again, which she missed as she was still apologising.

This got to Sia's bad side and he couldn't help but scream out the window, "How 'bout instead of all that sorry shit you move, we got somewhere to go you know!"

The brunette recoiled at his deep threatening voice, "Oh I'm sorry I.."

But a hand stopped her by covering her mouth, belonging to a tall man with jet black hair and deep blue eyes.

"Sorry about her, she didn't get much sleep last night." The man flashed a cheeky smile. "We'll just be getting out of your way now…uh…literally." He chuckled as he led the woman off the road, who was now laughing herself with a face bright red from embarrassment.

Sia put his foot back down on the pedal and released one long big sigh.

"What are day, what a day." He muttered.

Tifa sniggered, "You're telling me." She shook her head and rolled her eyes.

What a bloody day.

* * *

**Done! Huah!**

**Now let's hope to dear god that this story get's read, and if it's not much let's hope for a review or two.**

**Jya ne**

**~Serah Villiers Valentine**


	2. Angel dust

**(2,672 words) Ugh, it's short I know, I wasn't very inspired to write this at all. The writing isn't very good either I'm sorry. If there's anything in this that's confusing it shall be explained by the next chapter, and now this,**

**I CAUGHT THE HYLIAN LOACH, FULL SIZE BITCH, FULL SIZE. HE LOVES ME HE LOVES ME!**

**shuush, that didn't happen.**

**I'm happy for the review I got (****I know it says two but when I get them from my sister I don't count them), an alright hit count as well, I wouldn't call this popular in the least but it's certainly the most popular out of my VII stories. Now that makes me depressed so if you shall be kind enough, you may be interested in reading my other two; though for that you'll need a strong stomach because the're a little on the disturbed side.**

**More reviews shall help my sanity, and now the chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I just want to legally say that Vince is my husband, I don't own the game nor do I want to own it because than everyone will be baying for my blood.**

* * *

**Chapter 2) Angel dust**

* * *

The brunette was pulled to the footpath by a laughing man that towered over her tiny height. She was rolling his eyes at him; he wasn't going to get over that little mistake anytime soon. Passers-by might be talking about it for a while; it would've been so funny to all but those in the car. She felt sorry for them. She hadn't noticed at all; usually she was smarter, but she'd been making a number of stupid blunders lately.

The black haired man had his head in his hand, chuckling softly with his other hand wrapped softly around her dainty hand. They strode past the crowd of pedestrians with ease as they made their way back to their car. They'd had a quick snack in a small café as she'd been starving but it was still too early in the day to even think about dinner. There had been too many cars parked on the sides of the road to park near it so they had to go a way back.

Her feet were just starting to hurt by the time they made it back to the red sports car. Her heels were small but there were still heels after all. She clambered into the passenger seat and clipped on the seat belt. He followed after her, doing the same on his side and switched on the engine. It came to life with a mighty roar and the seats vibrated softly from the sound.

A minute went by in silence while he drove out into the lane and got going. She looked to the side, glad he wasn't laughing anymore, but still annoyed that he had and for so long too.

"Zack?" She asked the black haired man quietly.

"Hmm?" He half-heartedly responded, his mind more on the road than her.

"That was rude, you know."

He let out another short chuckle, only this one had different feelings put behind it.

"Yeah, sorry for that, that policeman's face was priceless though. That has to be the stupidest thing I've ever seen you do."

Her hand tightened its grip on the inside of the door as he went around a corner with unnecessary speed. From it he missed her sigh.

"To be honest this morning I almost got run over."

But he heard that.

"What?" he yelled. "How that'd happen?" He added, concerned.

"Did you see that woman next to that other officer? I'm pretty sure it was her. It would explain why she looked so surprised," she mumbled, fiddling with the hem of her purple blouse. She glanced over at Zack, who from the look on his face she couldn't figure out if he was trying to hold back another laugh or if he was worried for her.

"Did you go to that 'cursed' Laundromat again?" He asked with the slightest hint of sarcasm. Even he couldn't believe that it was 'cursed'. She'd called it so because she had been making an army of blunders and mistakes since she started going to it.

She was silent for near up to a minute.

"We need a working washing machine." She indirectly answered.

"I'll take that as a yes."

* * *

The car rolled into the building's parking lot with ease. The parking lot made up two of the building's floors, from saying that alone it gave the impression that it was the type of building that would tower into the sky. From an outside perspective, to be purely honest it would actually look to be on the small side, with only five stories. But to those who lived and worked here they knew it to be different; as it had a multitude of basement levels which the outsiders had no idea about. It was the point, as things went down there that needed to be unknown to the public.

Most of the cars were still inside, as most only went outside at night. It was virtually the opposite to empty but even so it didn't make it crowded thanks to its wide spaces. Zack parked the car on the left side of the second level like usual. Both got out rather quickly, not having to worry about banging the doors on any cars as this space had, unlike most other spaces in the lot, no cars by its side.

They made their way to the elevator on the other side of the car park: the stairs would take forever. As they waited for the door to open Zack started whistling a tune to himself from boredom. Finally after what had felt like an eternity the doors slid open to reveal a red haired girl standing on the other side doing basically the same as Zack was. She blinked fast from surprise as she hadn't expected to have people be on the other side waiting. Her hair was about shoulder length, but looked way shorter than that because of the high ponytail she had in. She had on a white blouse with a stylish black jacket and knee length pencil skirt. To anyone else she would have looked like a secretary, but the others present knew she was something much different to that.

Getting over her mild shock she stepped out and flashed a smile.

"Didn't expect to see you Zack. You doing good lately?" she asked with a grin. One hand on her hip, the other holding the strap of the white and blue shoulder bag.

"Yeah, I'm doing fine." He chuckled and returned the smile.

The red head's grin widened and she looked at the brunette to his right.

"Hey I've seen you before haven't I? Did we go to the same school or something?" she questioned with the slightest of laughs, doubting her own thought.

"Umm," She stuttered, not expecting that the stranger would want to talk to her too. "I went to a private school in sector 3."

She was interrupting by a short giggle.

"Oh hey I was right. Did you hear about that teacher that got charged with raping a student? It was all over the news a couple years back."

She missed the look Zack sent her. That was news to him.

"Yeah I heard about it, pretty sure it was just a bunch of lies made up by a parent that didn't like one of the teachers." It almost came out as a mumble; however the redhead was talking about it so calmly was beyond her.

"Yeah I heard that too. So what's your name?" She said while adjusting the strap on her shoulder.

"Umm, Aerith, why do y.."

"It's pretty." She stopped her and walked past them both, she gave one quick look back to Zack and informed him.

"Oh, Zack, Angeal wanted to walk to you. Same place as always. I really gotta get going now if I want to get that next shipment, Bye!" She waved and turned a corner disappearing from sight.

Aerith followed Zack into the elevator, with an expression of curiosity present.

"Who was that?"

He turned his gaze to her expecting emerald eyes.

"Cissnei, haven't seen her in about a year and a half. She can be strange sometimes sorry, she's so used to bad stuff happening it doesn't affect her to talk about it."

He pressed the buttons on the side to go to the 4th basement level. There were 10 in all, stopping just a metre or two above where the plate ended.

"So was there really a teacher at your school that got charged with rape?" He continued.

"Yeah," she sighed, still not very comfortable on the topic. "He was my history teacher in year 9 and 10. He was a good guy; I know he wouldn't have done such a thing. And if there was anything between him and a student I'm sure it would have been consensual."

Zack nodded in response, eyes stuck on the numbers above the door impatiently waiting for the door to open. He hated the feeling elevators gave you as they moved.

"So did he go to jail?"

"No, he kind of just disappeared," She made a shape with her hands like an explosion going off and made a poof sound with her mouth, an adorable thing to do whilst explaining a bad topic. "He was never found, so police suspected he'd ditched the city. They searched for him for another two months then gave up."

Zack gave a sigh of relief as the doors opened, but he continued his end of the conversation.

"What was his name?' He asked simply.

Aerith gave him a look but it was missed as he wasn't actually looking her in the eye right this second.

"All the students and teachers were told not to say it in the public. Even thought it was all over the news for about a month he was never named."

Zack stepped out into the black walled hallway devoid of anything but a picture hanging on the wall here and there and themselves.

"But what if he really had raped her? He might've done it again."

Aerith almost rolled her eyes at it; surely she'd already said enough for him to know that just wouldn't happen.

"He hadn't been working there for that long, but the staff knew what he was like and the students loved him. Not a single person thought or believed he could have done it; they don't have a clue where the accusation came from. It was a lie and that was that."

The tone of her voice pointed that this would be the end of the conversation; from the start it had been a topic she would have not liked to dwell on. It didn't matter what it was about or what really happened. The part that bothered her was that in the end regardless of the truth someone had had their life ruined.

"Well okay, I'll take your word for it. I have to go and find Angeal, but you'll be fine by yourself for a while, right?" He asked with his usual cheeky smirk.

Well she rolled her eyes at that. "Yes I'll be fine, I'm pretty sure there's a movie marathon on TV that is supposed to be on today, I can easily go and watch that," she replied and with a smile, turned to walk off in the opposite direction as him. She heard him call out goodbye; he probably waved too, even with her back turned.

* * *

Aerith was just about to open the door to go into her apartment when she heard angry yelling. Now the smart thing to do was ignore it and walk away, and the good thing to do was find out what was going on. Now she, being the kind person she was, with a little bit of curiosity filling her, ducked her head around the next corner and found a tall familiar brunette screaming his head off at a black haired teenager. Poor girl, this must have been the fifth time this month that man had done this; she wasn't really doing anything bad was she? Well she knew what her profession was and it was common for such a thing to happen to women such as her, but for sure she wasn't actually deserving of this?

"You were supposed to give me 30 percent!" he screamed in a rage, waving a handful of dollar notes in his left hand at her. "What is this? I know you have more, now give me 30 percent or I'm kicking you out onto the street again!" She flinched and shut her eyes fearfully as a response to his anger. Girl must be scared out of her mind by him.

"I told you, I didn't get much at all this week. It was one client and that was that, he barely even paid me." She held up her hands in front of her chest feeling that she needed a physical barrier between him and her.

"One client! You have got to be kidding me! I'm giving you so much and this is what you give me? That's it, get out of here! You're sleeping on the side of the road tonight!"

He slapped her on the side of the cheek and she fell to the floor a pitiful mess. He twisted his body to walk off but before he did Aerith came back and kicked him in the back of the knee, with the unexpected force he tripped and fell on his butt. In a second he was up again, turning to see the culprit. He made a sound like a wounded animal when he saw the brunette woman glaring daggers.

"God damn it you're more annoying than that stuck up woman at the gym earlier." He growled.

To piss him off further she decided she would smile at his remark.

"Well as amazed as I am that you actually go to the gym, I guess first I'd rather thank you that a person like you finds me annoying; that was my target from the beginning." She widened her smile and knelt down to help the crying teen up.

As she did she could hear him mumble under his breath: the usual of course. That being that he hated her and he knew he couldn't hit her in case her boyfriend found out and whenever he found out something a certain someone was going to lecture him on hitting girls again. She was pretty glad that in the end he left without saying another word. Though he did say while a good deal down the hallway but not out of earshot him complaining over her helping a stupid whore.

She didn't say anything to the young girl, but she gave her a comforting smile as she led her down to her apartment. She couldn't let her go without a place to sleep; it just wasn't right when she wasn't the one that had done anything wrong.

She took her to the lounge room where she took a seat on the poofy electric crimson couch. She had skinned her knees in a way Aerith was clueless of and a red hand-shaped mark was already forming on her left cheek. She switched the TV on and took the seat next to her.

"So what's your name anyway?" She inquired.

Fearful grey eyes glanced up to her own beautiful emerald ones.

"Angel Dust." She monotonously got out.

"I know that's not your real one."

"What makes you think that?" she asked in a whisper, her attention taken up by picking bits of fluff out of the lounge.

"Because on personal opinion it sounds like it belongs to a porn star. No offence if you're being truthful."

The girl was silent for almost up to a minute before she made the slightest sound.

"It's fine, I think it's stupid too. But that doesn't mean I'm going to tell you what it really is, or what this is," She lifted up a miniature suitcase literally handcuffed to her arm. It was made of a simple brown material with highly detailed symbols engraved where the lock should be. Though she guessed as it was locked at current, those symbols were the lock. The item for plainly obvious reasons had been an object of interest.

"That's fine." she lied; she really wanted to know, and knowing she couldn't was only going to make her want to see it more.

"Do you want anything to eat? Kitchen's right there." She pointed diagonally to her right.

The girl shook her head.

"Am I really allowed to stay here?" she questioned with obvious fear ringing in her voice.

"Of course you are, I'll just explain to Zack when he gets back. It'll be fine, don't worry."

The teenager nodded and lay herself down properly on the couch. In less than a minute she had fallen into a deep sleep. Aerith stood up to allow her room. She had to wonder, what on earth had gotten such a young girl into the life she had now?

* * *

**I had no idea what to call this, I guess Angel's somewhat important so I'll name it after her. Oh and that guy wasn't simply insulting her, she really is a prostitute...a 15 year old one...you can see what I meant in the A/U for the last chap when I said I'm not allowed to say no to Serah. I did say no to yaoi though, I'm fine with the existence of yaoi, I've got a non fanfiction story filled to the brim with it, but I couldn't in this. I convinced Serah because she knew she couldn't make a character gay when she believed them to be straight.**

**I'm going to have fangirls yelling at me when they find out there was a chance for yaoi in this story aren't I? Oh god.**

**Reviews shall help me get my severe paranoia to stop talking to me (YES IT'S TALKING TO ME!)**

**Bye bye,**

**~Serah Villers Valentine**


	3. Shipment

**(3,399 words) Well it was longer than the last one but still not as long as the first. sorry.**

**My beta hasn't gone through thanks to computer problems, I edited this during my English class today. See this is why you shouldn't give students laptops. It's not my fault I didn't do my work, Internet wasn't working. So I decided to make use of my time another way is all.**

**I wrote this all whilst thinking 'Ohmagod Vincent is so hot, he should be my husband, he is just so hot'. And I was writing something completely irrelevant.**

**OMG word has Tseng in it's dictionary!**

**Disclaimer: If I owned this it wouldn't be on this website.**

* * *

**chapter 3: shipment**

* * *

Cissnei kicked the man in front of her to the ground.

"This is not all of it, stop your lies! Now tell me where you've hid the rest!" She threatened him as she brought out the gun hidden beneath her leather jacket.

"You'd better do as she says, she's not afraid to use that thing, you can trust me on that one." A red haired man poked him with a metal stick whilst chuckling darkly.

The man cowered, waving his hands in front of him telling her to wait before she ended it.

"Don't I beg you; this is all the smugglers got. The boss said this was all! If there ever was more I don't have it!" He screamed and braced himself for her to take the shot. He didn't look any calmer when he heard her next order.

"Reno," She directed to the red haired man knelling besides the trembling man, "Go check the closet." She nodded her head in the direction of the piece of furniture, with an irritated demeanour.

"Will do." He laughed, jumping up and walking to it at a leisurely pace. He tugged on the door knob to find it locked.

"Well looks like the bastard locked it, little suspicious wouldn't you think?" He flashed a mischievous grin to the man currently a pitiful mess on the floor.

The man mumbled under his breath, and made himself into a smaller ball, just as tears began flowing from his eyes.

Reno walked over to him and kicked him harshly in the stomach, "Up!"

The man made a smaller ball.

"Up!" He commanded and lifted him by the collar, before promptly whacking him with his electrocuted bat and sending him half way across the room.

The man nursed his new injured arm but was soon kicked again by the Turk.

"Now you are going to unlocked that closet unless you prefer the idea of having a bullet lodged in your brain." The cocky redhead laughed before kicking him again. He was enjoying this, while the woman behind him looked on condescendingly at both men.

The man continued sobbing but through the tears shakily nodded and forced his way up painfully. He searched his pocket and brought out an old key. He weakly walked to the furniture, still winded from the Reno's kicks. His trembling hand inserted the key into the lock and twisted it, bringing the door open slowly, as he burst out into tears, eyes becoming a fountain. He feared for his life.

The door swung open and a pile of ten of so wrapped packages fell to the floor at his sides. His head fell into his hands as all he could do now was sob.

"So what was that before eh, that you didn't know where the rest of our shipment went? You locked that door yourself didn't you?" Reno accused him with a conniving smirk.

"Step away from him Reno." Cissnei ordered, getting back into the picture. He did as he was told with a chuckle, knowing full well what she was about to do.

"Come here." She ordered to the man, knowing he had no way out; he did as she said and shuffled to her stand directly in front of her, and away from everything else. For that one last second he brought his head out of his hands to beg her with pleading eyes edged with tears. He was young, younger than her. He could've lived a long life, but he'd made one mistake that would end it all.

Cissnei took her aim, and shot him in the head.

He was dead instantly from the point blank hit, his body collapsed to the ground, blood pouring from the bullet hole in the middle of his forehead.

"Reno, you know what to do with him, I'll finish the job here." She said as she knelt down and began putting the packages in her shoulder bag along with the others.

"Yes your majesty." He laughed mockingly, receiving a glare from his fellow Turk.

"Bastard." She spat under her breath, but just loud enough for him to hear.

"Hey, what's wrong if I'm annoyed with you being higher in ranks than me? I've been here for longer than you yet here you are ordering me around. Pisses me off, what did you do, sleep with Tseng or something?"

"Oh shut up," Cissnei interrupted him before he could say more, "Not every woman with my life is a prostitute. I'm just more talented with you, that's why you stupid idiot." She finished shoving the packages into the bag and zipped it up, glad she'd shut Reno up for a full minute.

Except then he made it worse, "So hey are you a virgin?"

"Shut up and get back to work you retard!" She yelled before storming out of the room.

He watched the door for a second longer, it clicked that he'd touched a nerve there.

"Jeez, must be her time of the month." He sighed before removing the cadaver from the room.

* * *

Cissnei snuck out of the building without attracting any attention to herself. It would seem strange at least to a degree why her bag was now magically filled to the brim. Her temper was yet to dissipate, but she kept her head on the job instead of how annoying Reno was. She hated him, he was always to spiteful to her when she never really did anything to him at all. It as his own fault if she was a higher rank, she took her job seriously when he didn't give a damn. When she was offered that promotion of course she took it, more money that way. Money was something she needed; she needed to get out of this life before she fell too deep, money was the answer to everything in this god forsaken world.

"Tseng!" She called when she spotted the man, standing by the apartment building's wall as non-conspicuous as he could. A black van was parked by his side, an older man, who still remained to keep a youthful appearance, was sitting on the front seat with the door opened and his feet hanging out, smoking a cigarette.

Tseng pushed himself of the wall and walked the span to her, to shorten the distance.

"You have all of it; you've made sure of it?" He inquired severely.

"Yes, I definitely do", she zipped open the bag to show him the over flowing contents.

"There should be enough in there to make up 13 packages, do you have that?" He questioned more deeply.

"That's the exact number in here, I counted. Trust me Tseng this is the entire shipment."

"And where's Reno?" He changed the topic.

"Finishing some business, he shouldn't be much longer." She bit her lip preparing herself for a lecture.

Tseng let out a big frustrated sigh, "Contain yourself next time Cissnei. We can' take too many chances"

"Yes sir." She zipped the bag up just as the man that had been sitting in the van ripped the bag from her grasp. He looked angry, for a reason she knew she wouldn't be able to guess. He always looked like something had him ticked off, he wasn't a bad guy, no not at all; he just was never in a good mood. He had dark eyes and dark hair, and his fringe covered one eye. Though she'd never say it out loud, she thought he was quite good looking.

He walked off without a word, and she and Tseng were made to follow him back to van, to wait for Reno to return.

* * *

The van blended in with the moonlight, barely noticeable as it drove along the roads. It would only alert people of its presence from the sound of the engine and wheels on the road. The shipment was put into place on one of the back seats, resting under the arm of the black haired man to stop it from moving. The driver and passenger seat were almost cut off from the rest of the vehicle as the seats behind it faced the back instead of the front; awhile another set of seats faced it, leaving little room in the back.

Tseng drove the van in complete silence, while Reno and Cissnei took the seats furthest away, sitting on opposite sides of the vehicle. Reno had completed his task at an unnervingly fast time, not that anyone else was surprised; nothing less form a Turk. The disturbing part was that they all knew for sure that he had done it properly, and any traces of the man would be tough to find.

They had initially left the building in the afternoon, but being on opposite sides of the city, it had taken a good half an hour to reach, just in time for the sun to start setting. By the time everything had gotten in order and the people they were meant to be receiving the shipment from knew it was indeed them, night had long since fallen. The young man that had tried to trick them had cost them more time in the end, it was predictable to be somewhere between ten to midnight, thanks to the 'cleaning up' Reno had done. They'd return to the building in around twenty minutes, and Cissnei was very glad she'd be getting a break from being stuck with the moronic redhead next to her.

Reno had attempted to start up a conversation with her at random intervals, but she had shot down each attempt before they could even make a real start. As boredom set in he even tried to get the older Turk in front of him to talk. But it had failed even worse than his tries with Cissnei, for the other man wasn't even bothered to say a simple 'shut up' like she did. He completely and utterly ignored his existence and instead fiddled with the golden ring on his finger. Once Cissnei had asked another why he had the ring, she'd been told it was a wedding ring, but she knew that was incorrect because he never had a wife.

"Bloody hell." Reno groaned as the van hit a pot hole suddenly and he wound up hitting his head on the door which he'd been learning on. Cissnei let herself laugh at him, whilst he rubbed his reddening forehead. This life was risky and dark, it didn't give her much to laugh or smile about, so she wouldn't let herself miss out on a chance when she had it.

Even so, the man in front of her acted like nothing had happened, like he was too void of emotion to care. He was a worry, but a personality like his was not uncommon in this job, it happened when you spent too long in this life. Cissnei promised herself she'd never let herself get that way.

* * *

The van parked in the pitch black lot, Cissnei sat at the side of the van waiting for her vision to adapt; Reno copied her, sitting by her side on the edge of the open Van. The man whose name she was yet to catch was conversing with Tseng in hushed whispers. A part of her mind told her they were so quiet so Reno wouldn't make his stupid comments, but the smarter part reminded her that this may just be information only meant for the higher-ups. She wasn't on the bottom rung, but she was far away from the top of the ladder, and she wanted to be neither. But she still needed to climb just that little bit higher.

When the duo were done they came back to her side of the vehicle, they handed her her quarter of the shipment, simply saying she knew what to do with it. She nodded and Reno was content for once to do the same as her when he was told the same thing.

She gently placed her part in her bag, not missing how Reno messily shoved his into a smaller shoulder bag that'd he'd kept at the back of the van for hours. Both Turks got up at the same time to hurry to the elevator. The day had been long and they were both tired, they wanted to sleep but there were still things that needed to be done.

When the elevator opened they got in together, Reno made the tenth attempt tonight to try and talk to her again, but as she no longer had any higher ups watching her now; she was free to give him a nice slap on the cheek.

* * *

The door opened on the fourth underground floor and Cissnei exited the elevator as fast as she could, knowing Reno needn't get off until the sixth. She could sigh a sigh of relief knowing she didn't have him making annoying comments at a constant rate anymore. In fact actually being alone for the first time today was relaxing for her, she didn't get along well with people well anymore, she pretended to, but all her mind screamed for her to punch them.

She walked the path her mind had memorised over the past three years she'd been working here. She rounded the three corners and knocked on the door, second last at the end of the hallway, one of the few that led to a dead end. The setting was one burned into her brain, all the time she had spent waiting in front of this door could no doubt take up a couple hours of her life, and she never even had to wait long.

She could hear talking in the room beyond, she concluded he'd been in the middle of a conversation. She frowned realising had interrupted one of the few moment he had to talk with friends. It wasn't like she knew for sure it was a friend, but she did have horrible luck with timing, that was usually what happened.

The door opened after a quick minute of waiting, and a tall man stood in front of her. She put on a fake smile for the sake of appearances,

"Hello Angeal, um did I interrupt something again?" She winced fearing she had, yet again.

"No it's alright; it was just about over anyway." He folded his arms and rested his back against the door, was she ever so glad that Angeal was just about the nicest person here. She was clueless how on earth he could wound up in a life like this.

From his changed position she had a view of the room inside, where she could see Zack sitting on the couch set alongside the wall.

A wave of shock hit her, and even though what she was feeling was so different, she forced out a soft chuckled and widened her disgustingly fake smile.

"Heh heh, haven't seen you in over a year and all of a sudden I see you twice in one day." She laughed; he did his usually cheeky grin as a response before getting up.

"Yeah, funny coincidence right? But I think I should be getting back to my apartment, Aerith's probably getting pretty lonely by now. You've got stuff to do right? I'll leave you to it." Cissnei stepped to the side to allow him room to pass through, before watching him with gloomy eyes as he disappeared down the hall giving nothing but a wave.

When she looked back up to Angeal, he was giving her an all-knowing look; she bit her lip and decided to get her mind off the subject before he decided to make any questions.

"Um...the shipments in, I came to give you it…" She paused as the words got jumbled up in her throat. She bit her lip harder and lifted up the shoulder bag as she fully lost the ability to talk.

Angeal nodded and decided against making any comments on her actions, he wasn't stupid; he understood what had gotten her like that.

"It was supposed to come in last week, were there troubles?" He questioned, and she luckily regained her voice.

"Yes, the Wutanese group that were sneaking it in had to put the time back because one of their members was almost caught."

He nodded in understanding, "Police troubles again, I didn't expect any less. Didn't have too much trouble when your group received it did you?"

"No it was fine from then on out." She replied and took a step out of the door way, he already had what she had to give him, she was right to leave.

"That's good then, I'll see you later I guess. Let's hope it goes fine the next time."

Cissnei nodded as she began walking off, she waved but he may have already shut the door. There was something wrong with his door, it never made a sound.

* * *

Zack opened the door to his apartment five minutes after twelve. He found Aerith sitting on one of the kitchen stools with a bowel of ice-cream watching a movie, and also noticed a young girl sleeping on the couch. As much as he was curious about that, he decided to making a joke about Aerith staying up was more important, she never could stay up for long.

She crept up behind her and placed both his hands on her shoulder before whispering into her ears,

"Oh no, Aerith, it's five minutes past Cinderella, peoples aren't supposed to stay up this late!" He joked, the brunette jumped in her chair and almost dropped her ice-cream, she was quick to turn around and hiss at him,

"Zack, you scared the heck out of me! Why were you gone for too long?"

He softly chuckled, careful to keep his voice down because of the sleeping teen on his couch.

"Sorry, we got talking and kinda just lost track of time. I haven't even eaten dinner yet, I'm starving."

Aerith gave him a look, but smiled only a second later. "Well than you shouldn't have taken so long. And sucks for you we ate all the left overs in the fridge." She admitted and grinned when he put on an overdramatic astonished expression.

"Oh how positively horrible! By the way who is that kid?" He pointed as he walked into the kitchen and learned over the counter top.

Aerith took a look back at the teen fast asleep on the couch; she'd been there for hours now. "She said her name was Angel Dust but I doubt that's true-"

"Sounds like it belongs to a porn star." Zack interrupted.

Aerith gave him another look before continuing, "My thoughts exactly but that's not important. The meanie was swearing his head off at her again and said he was kicking her out on the streets, so I said she could stay here."

"Fair enough, and are you ever going to call Genesis by his name?"

"No." She responded the moment the words left his lips. "He hates me and I hate him and that's that."

Zack turned around to scavenge around the fridge for food, but kept up his end of the conversation. "Why is it just him? There are a lot of bad people here, so why personally hate him the most?"

"I guess it's because he's rude specifically to females. He's friends are fine though, they're nice."

After a moment of silence Zack brought out a tin of yogurt, as he'd given up on the idea he would find something better than that. He found a spoon and started eating right from the tin.

"I know you've met Angeal plenty of times, but have you ever met Seph?"

Aerith paused for a moment in thought, "I've run into him a couple of times, so not really…"

"And I'm guessing by 'run into' you're speaking literally?" He interrupted, whilst stifling a chuckle.

"Maybe…"

Bullseye.

* * *

**And done, now I shall properly watch my popasia (it's playing right now my sister wont pause it!)**

**I will give you cookies if you review or check out my other precious story 'Wings of Regret' If you were confused by anything tell me in a review and I'll explain it better. I'm being too paranoid to write.**

**bai bai!**

**`Serah Villiers Valentine**


	4. Blonde

**(2,625 words) Okay, I was being a little slack with this chapter, and maybe with the editing too. That's why I took four days for something so short. I'm keeping this short so I can go read Inuyasha. **

**I finished another one of my stories so updates can maybe come a little faster. I've overloaded myself, so it's hard to write.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own this, Vincent is just my husband.**

* * *

Chapter 4: Blonde 

* * *

Tifa was sitting outside a small shop at a metal table with three chairs around it, two of them occupied. One by her one by Synda, the little boy was munching on an ice-cream cone as he'd already finished his bubble gum flavoured ice-cream. She was half way done a coffee flavoured one as she didn't eat it at the speed of light like her excited son had.

Synda finished the cone giggling happily. His mother picked up the napkin that had previously been wrapped around the cone and wiped clean Synda's grubby face.

"You need to open your mouth wider so it goes into your mouth and not onto your cheeks." She told him in a motherly tone, with a hint of a chuckle. The small boy was so cute sometimes. She enjoyed to time she got to spend with him so much. Work took away a lot of that possible time, which was such a shame.

"Ready to go?" She asked, and took his tiny hand in hers. He nodded beaming and she led him away from the shop and they walked along the concrete path close to the main street of the city until they finally rounded a corner which led to a park, in the middle of which was a playground with a multitude of kids his age climbing on and having fun with their friends.

She walked to it then sat down on a bench, where she could finish her ice-cream without fearing someone was going to knock it out of her grasp.

"Now have fun and be careful. Don't climb on anything you're not supposed to." She informed him; the laughing boy smiled and replied,

"I won't mamma." Before running to the slide where a boy he knew was playing.

Tifa smiled at Synda as she watched him. It felt peaceful here in the park, despite the screaming children. She didn't have to deal with the problematic people she usually had to deal with. No violence, no bad mouthing and swearing to listen to, yeah, this was quite calming on comparison. It was a plus that she could see her precious son having fun, sure he was a cheery boy but she never got to see him with friends or anything. Jessie was the one that took him to daycare. So when she had the chance to see him with other children, it made her so happy she had trouble putting it in words.

She wanted the best for him, because she felt like she had never had it. Her mother died when she was young, so all she had was her father. It saddened her to think Synda was in a similar situation for only having his mother, even if his father wasn't dead, it still left something missing in his life. She was glad there were people in his life to be a father figure to him, for she'd never had someone who could fill in the role of her mother. She'd grown up in a small town, so she barely had any friends, and no one really had anything back there. Midgar was going to be able to offer so much more for him. Hopefully when he got older, she'd be able to send him to good schools, she knew the others working at the bar would help her there, even if they couldn't afford it. Synda was someone they all loved to. Because of her workload everyone took their time to be with him so he was never lonely.

"Mamma mamma!" Synda ran over to her enthusiastically, she eyed him for a second with curiosity but the second he reached her he started yelling what he wanted to say in his cute child voice.

"Those girls over there said they wanted to play with us! But they're girls and girls have cooties!"

Tifa had to use all her restraint not to laugh at his accusation. Cooties, she'd almost forgotten about them.

"Oh Synda, girls don't have cooties, I'm a girl aren't I? Do I have them?" She chuckled quietly, questioning.

The kid pouted and said this, "But you're my mamma, parents don't got cooties, girls got cooties!"

_This was getting too cute._

"Synda," She ruffled his hair, which made him pout again. _Was it wrong to say it made his face look cuter? _

"Just let them play, be fair and let everyone have fun." She told him.

Reluctantly the boy nodded and ran back to his group of friends by the slides. From the appearance she'd successfully got him to allow the girls who wanted to play to join in the game him and his friends were playing. He was a good kid; he probably would have let them play eventually even without talking to her about it.

Tifa sat on the bench for around an hour, letting him have all his fun. All she had gotten up for since she'd come here was to put a napkin in the bin which she'd used to clean her face with after her ice-cream.

When she did her eyes had strayed and she noticed a man decked out in all black sitting under a table a few metres away smoking a cigarette. When she noticed he was blonde, out of habit she stared at him for a minute or so trying to spot roots. Every blonde person she found, male or female, wasn't naturally blonde. Usually they were a brunette. Even when they'd just dyed their hair it could still be possible to tell on occasions. She frowned when she noticed she couldn't see any. Either it'd been professionally dyed, or that hair was natural.

Heh, a natural blonde, she hadn't seen anybody like that since she'd left Nibelheim. Dismissing it, she turned and went back to the bench.

* * *

The following day Tifa woke up early, earlier than usual. And when she found she couldn't return to her little dream world, she got up and watched TV. She hadn't the slightest clue what time it was, just before sunrise was what she got when she finally looked out the window. She usually didn't wake till 7, when Synda jumped on her bed demanding breakfast.

Her shift didn't start till close to noon, work was common for her to start later in the day, as she worked the night shifts most night. When 7 o'clock came around she heard Synda scurry into her room to wake her up, and she clearly heard his confused questions when he found it empty. She called out to alert him she was in the lounge room. The boy ran out giggling and jumped into her lap.

She talked with him for a bit, and let him watch his favourite cartoons until she got up and went into the kitchen and got him some breakfast. She rummaged about to see what they had left, someone desperately needed to go shopping to restock the shelves. She found a box of chocolate flavoured cereal so she chose that and made a bowel for him.

"Synda. " She called him over, "Breakfast!"

Synda scampered over with a smile covering his whole face.

He ate while she made herself toast. Breakfast was a silent as each were too busy eating to talk to one another. When her son finished Tifa put his bowel in the sink and cleaned the spilt milk of the table. He was a messy eater.

She watched TV with him for an hour before Jessie woke up and forced Tifa to aid her with some chores. Noon reared its head far faster than she'd like, and she knew she had to hurry up and get ready. By the time she was dressed Jessie had already gone and driven Synda to daycare, so despite missing that she hadn't the chance to say goodbye today at least it made leaving quicker.

She ran down the steps to go find Barrett, again she made a plea to borrow his car, but at least this time he was more willing than last.

* * *

Tifa turned on the car engine and it roared to life. A soft breeze came in through the open window, coming from the outside of the garage. It was refreshing after being in the stuffy confined place, even when most of what she breathed in stank of gas. She reversed out and spun the car around so her front faced the road. It was a pain turning such a big thing in the tiny driveway, but she'd adapted after having to do it almost every day since coming to Midgar.

The sun was blocked by clouds, and it was quite nice not having the blinding orb around, it wasn't like it was a cold day. The weather was nice for once. As she drove closer to the station traffic began building up, but luck was on her side today as just before it got horrific she turned in to the station and got out of it.

Today she was being put on patrol; her partner for the day was a man she rarely saw. Another officer named Jackson. He wasn't a bad guy, but when he got angry he may as well have shape shifted into a horrifying monster.

The day was uneventful, and by the time the sun began to set nothing had occurred at all. It almost seemed wrong, this was Midgar after all. It had a million and one poor people so usually at least a robbery would happen. People got desperate round here, not to mention it had a drug problem. It just made things all the more worse, and the department couldn't even find where the dealers were, or where they were getting their stuff from. It was a confusing matter, sure the force was small and all their equipment was outdated, but enough time had gone by for at least one dealer to be brought to justice. Strangely that was not so.

For Tifa, the night went almost as the day had. Three couples had to be handled with after they caused some trouble for neighbours on account on being drunk, but that wasn't much for this city. Two such occasions had even occurred down in the slums. She was glad the mundane shift left her without having to witness her partners terrifying anger, thank the lords that the few they were alerted about hadn't been any trouble. For the second couple, the man had been too drunk to stand; he'd been complaining and talking gibberish on the floor, waving about a half empty bottle that he spilt everywhere.

It was late when the shift ended, and Tifa was intent on getting home as soon as possible. But just as she was to enter her car, she heard something that caught her attention. Someone back inside was going off their head at another. She didn't recognise the voice and knew that whatever was happening didn't concern her in the slightest, she couldn't help her curiosity. She crept back in the doors and stood on her tiptoes to look over the men blocking her view. One of the higher-ups was standing in front of a girl sitting on a chair. His was angry and his face was turning purple. But she didn't appear to be putting him in a bad mood on purpose. She was small, with short black hair little more than boy's length, her clothes were looking worse for wear, but the main thing was how terrified she looked. Tears edged both of her grey eyes.

Tifa looked about for someone she knew could give her a hint on what was going on. She found Sia leaning against a wall listening in, probably doing what she was doing. She had severe doubts this concerned him either.

"Sia, what's happening, why is that girl there?" She questioned; her curiosity too much.

Sia looked up surprised; he hadn't thought her the type to eavesdrop. "Apparently she has some connection to a drug ring. Boss is trying to get her tell spill whatever she knows. And as you can see, he's intimidated her to silence. Honestly I don't even think she knows anything." He looked to her with a sympathetic look.

Tifa turned back to look at her again as well.

"If it is true though, what do you think would have to happen to get you that kind of life so young? She doesn't look a day over 15." The question came out barely more than a mumble, she hadn't intended it to be so but she almost lost her voice as she wandered into her thoughts, trying think up an answer herself.

"Rumour has it she's a prostitute too; bet that'd really make you wonder eh? Let's just say life is all one horrible horrible game with the odds stacked against us."

Tifa bit her lip and looked away; she didn't want to hear anymore.

Life is a horrible game, when a moment all is right, it throws a curveball at you and all is lost again. Sometimes never to be regained.

* * *

A man stood by the door of an apartment; he'd been waiting for the occupants to come back for over an hour. He didn't have anything to do with his day so this was his best option. He was short, with blonde hair dyed black at the tips. His outfit consisted of black jeans, black jacket and a plain white tee. His clothes and brown boots had all seen better days, but he hadn't enough money to buy himself some more.

He stared at the wall and attempted to go off into a trance, but after ten minutes of trying he gave up. He was starting to wish he hadn't used up the last of his packet of cigarettes. He sighed and sat down, if his back and legs could talk they'd be thanking him right about now, an hour of standing didn't do one good. He blew at a strand of hair stubbornly covering right his eye. He may need to have a haircut as well, not like he had the money.

He was about to give up and leave, but just his luck the man he was waiting for came around the corner a second before he was going to get up. He used the wall behind him to assist him into getting to his feet, and waited for him to reach him.

The taller black-haired man upon noticing him grinned and covered the remaining distance between them in less than a second. The brunette previously at his heels trailed behind with a coy smile gracing her pink lips.

"Yo, Cloud, haven't seen you in ages!" Zack slapped his hand on his shoulder and with a laugh ruffled his spiky blonde hair.

Cloud smacked his hand away and fixed up his hair, which looked even worse than usual thanks to him.

"Yeah, hi to you to." He mumbled, his friend had actually managed to hurt him simply by ruffling his hair.

"You gonna come in? We can catch up and stuff, haven't seen you in what? Three months?"

"Four." Cloud corrected.

"Jeez, feels even longer, but hey come on." He swung the door open, which Cloud realised he must have forgotten to lock it, and they walked inside. Aerith shut the door behind them.

* * *

** I'm just mentioning this for the heck of it. Two days ago my sister's gone and asked me, "So is Synda's dad an OC or an actual character?" Obviously asked because of my obsession with OC's which I only got over a little while ago.**

**Instead of answering I grinned evilly and walked backwards out of the room. Even though she was yelling at me to answer.**

**Sorry Claire my lips are sealed.**

**REVIEW AND I'LL GIVE YOU PUPPIES!**

**Also if you'll be nice could you check out my precious 'Wings of regret'?**

**Bai.**

**~Serah Villlers Valentine**


	5. But I don't deserve it

**(3,541 words) My beta hasn't given me back the last document I sent them, so not to overload them I edited this myself, and from past experience I know I suck. Sorry in advance for any mistakes.**

**If things are unclear ask me in a review and I'll clear it up, I love darker type things but I'm too paranoid to actually write them.**

**Hope you enjoy**

**Disclaimer: I don't own this I'm just married to Vincent.**

* * *

5) But I don't deserve it

* * *

"So tell me why you're forcing me to come along?" Tifa asked Jessie, the girl a mix of excitement and apprehension. She sat in the driver's seat, Tifa in the passenger.

"Because the new house they moved into is in one of the bad areas and no offence to them, I don't feel safe down there anymore." Jessie replied, her eyes firmly on the road acting as if some crazy person was hiding in the shadows waiting for them to come along so they could jump in front of them to cause an accident.

Tifa sighed and took to gazing out the half-open window, the wind not strong enough to turn her long hair into a complete and utter mess but enough to give her a headache if she rested her head too close to the glass. The joy she felt at being surrounded by the familiarity of her own car was ruined as right after she left the shop Jessie stole it off her and forced her to come with her when she visited her parent's house down in the slums. The brunette refused to use her own car, claiming it was broken despite no one having any proof. From first look it seemed perfectly fine, as it did the last time the girl had used it, two months ago. Tifa told her again and again to take it to the shop if it truly was broken, but going off how long it took Tifa to get hers back, she refused.

Apparently Jessie's older brother had had a kid and she was supposed to see them for the first time today, forcefully dragging Tifa along for comfort on the drive and protection in the slums. Considering she was a girl who had been raised under the plate it was a wonder how she could be so fearful of the place she'd grown up in, too long on the plate Tifa presumed. If Jessie dared tell anyone in her family today no doubt they'd go off their heads at her. The people who lived in the slums were sick of the bad name they had, the people up on the plate were just as bad, only that their houses and apartments weren't broken and dilapidated. The plate people had money; that was the one and only difference, the slums just got a bad rap.

When Tifa had tried to get another reason off of Jessie that wasn't made of being sincerely paranoid, she managed to get into this conversation:

"I was thinking maybe my brother isn't going to take tips off his parents about raising children and all that. He's a good guy sure but sometimes he doesn't go by their word, so I was wondering if you could help with that." It'd been a clear excuse, but still Tifa had given her a response.

"I don't think I'm the best person for the job, I mean you do get to spend more time than I do with Synda; shouldn't you be just as good?"

Without a second hesitation Jessie had practically yelled, "But you are his mother, that's the big difference. Surely you know as much as I do if not more. He'll take your word for it not his little sister. No one listens to their juniors for important advice like raising a child."

Knowing she wasn't getting anywhere, Tifa had dropped the subject and had walked off. Jessie had bribed her to come with saying that since she had to be at the house by midday, she could be the one to drop Synda off at daycare, and spend some time with him before she had to go. For the first time Tifa had experienced his little habit of clinging to the only person he knew when he first arrived. Of course it always was Jessie seeing she took him there, it being his mother this time round meant he was going to be tonnes more stubborn. Jessie usually had to wait half an hour to an hour before she could leave because Synda refused the idea of being left alone with people he called strangers, though he'd gotten to know them well in the past year. The brunette would have to play games with him until he calmed down enough to be left alone. For today it had taken close to an hour and a half before Tifa had been able to leave, he hadn't gotten the chance to play games with his mother in a very long time. She worried what he would be like when he went into kindergarten next year, if it took so long for the adult to leave.

After they had left the daycare behind, Jessie headed straight away for the slums. Her parents lived in the edge of sector five; it was one of the better places down there, full of markets and families living in houses of surprisingly good conditions for the slums. The new house her parents had moved into was spacious, plenty of room for the foster children they looked after. Since Jessie and her brother had moved out they had looked after many children, in place of the parents they'd lost in unfortunately circumstances. The one problem with the new place was that it was in an area that Jessie claimed was bad. Tifa had heard there were robberies aplenty in the surrounding area, but what Jessie didn't keep in mind was that all it was were an insignificant number of pickpockets that got crafty when it came to handbags. Sia had to deal with them all the time, Tifa was far more informed on the matter than Jessie, the 'protection' she wanted was a severe overreaction.

The house was simple, wooden and painted orange with a veranda out the front. A tall fence circled all around it, the dirt that made the yard was absolutely littered with toys. Several kids ran up to them with curiosity lighting their big round eyes. They asked question after question as kids do, it was something that'd continue the entire time they spent here. Jessie's parents were a kind couple that happily welcomed Tifa, and Jessie's brother and his wife were no different. Jessie stuck to the baby the whole time; she was a two month old baby girl, a knitted pink beanie with a ribbon tied into a bow knot around the bottom was place on her tiny head, she herself wrapped up in a fluffy pink blanket. Jessie's brother as Jessie had mentioned, did indeed ask Tifa many questions about raising children. She didn't have as much to offer as he had originally hoped, but he wasn't overly disappointed.

When two o'clock came around Tifa strode over to Jessie, finally getting away from the constant questioning of her brother, and told her she needed to pick up Synda. The brunette took her time saying goodbye; first to her parents, then to her brother and his wife and baby, then to the many foster children running amok in the house. Surprisingly she remembered each and every name of all the kids.

Tifa reached the car first and stole the driver's seat away from her friend. She felt exhausted in a weird way but when her friend made complaints she argued back that it was her car after all. The argument was quickly won and Jessie handed her the car keys to start the engine. Jessie waited in the car when they reached Synda's daycare, allowing Tifa some alone time with her son. Back home Jessie got straight to work doing the chores before the bar opened, while Tifa played a game with Synda in the lounge room. She had additional shifts the coming week, so she could get some extra money. She didn't have a day off in over ten days; she was spending all the time she could with Synda before she had to go back to work.

* * *

Cloud watched with dazed eyes the smoke circle above him, drifting closer and closer to the roof. He watched it make patterns in the air, swirling and swirling around. He was in a corner of the room, with his back against the side of his bed. The room was a mess, not a spot on the floor was visible thanks to the junk accumulated on it. The lights were off, like they always were. His mind didn't register anything but the dancing smoke above his head; whatever the time was, what day or month it was, if anyone was here, didn't matter at all. The source of the haze inside his mind was held loosely in his hand, he inhaled the smoke that surrounded him as it encircled his head, sending him deeper into a drugged trance. He'd gotten it from Zack after Aerith had gone to sleep; he'd soon left after that. Aerith knew her boyfriend was a dealer, but he'd rather her never see, especially since neither knew if she was aware Cloud was an addict. She wouldn't be surprised, they both knew that, there were only a few people Zack associated with, and with her knowing full well he certainly wasn't a dealer himself, it left little to wonder. Dealers didn't usually befriend the addicts, being the sorry people they were, Cloud was a special case, and that was the only thing that made him unsure of how much Aerith was aware of.

Zack had taken an interest in him, he didn't know why, he had no outstanding aspects. What difference did he have to his other clients? He was just another lost person who'd had everything go wrong for them, leaving them with nothing. It had been the first time he'd seen him, that the strange guy had started up an irrelevant conversation with him, disregarding he was meant to be selling him drugs not socialising. The blonde had initially disregarded it but each time he ran into him, or went to buy more drugs, he'd do exactly that. Cloud still didn't know why Zack was friends with him, but after knowing him for three years, he gave up questioning him over it. He was very interested in his past, and though Zack had divulged to him practically his entire childhood, not skipping the part which left him with this life, he knew near to nothing about Cloud's. He came from a small country town far away; he'd lost both his parents, and had only had one friend in his entire life. The last part had sparked Zack's curiosity, and had caused an armada of questions to be sent his way; he'd chosen to answer a grand total of three. He didn't know where she was, why she left town, and was just as confused about why they had been friends as he was about his friendship with Zack. When he'd slipped up and said 'she', it caused even more questions, none of which he'd answered.

Cloud fidgeted with the stubborn strand of hair that had plopped itself in front of his eye. He toyed with it for a good twenty minutes, so caught in a trance he didn't notice the passage of time. Outside an argument carried on, he heard it and didn't at the same time, his mind barely registering it at all.

Because this drug was the key to sweet oblivion.

* * *

Tifa heaved a sigh of exhaustion as she exited the police car. Glad was an understatement when it came to saying how happy she was for her shift to be over for the night. The last month had been so uneventful and she had gotten use to the slowed pace, when it got ramped back up to its usual she felt a heavy weight fall on her, crushing her under it. Tonight alone she and her partner had to deal with six robberies and three domestic disturbances where she had to deal with some of the most irrational people she ever had to deal with, and coming from someone who'd been living in Midgar since graduating from high school, that meant a lot.

She was lucky she was working with Sia tonight; he'd lighten up the mood between all the events. It was good he had a sense of humour, because then he could laugh at the stupidity and rudeness of the people they'd dealed with when they had been so frustrated by them. Tifa stood by the car for a minute, rolling her shoulders and cracking her joints. Sia strolled over to her side, offering a cheerful chuckle.

"Tired are ya?"

"That's an understatement, just wish I didn't have to wake up so early tomorrow, shift starts early."

Sia beamed a surprisingly happy smile for someone who had to be just as tired. "Oh yeah, don't your kid jump on you if you don't make him breakfast? Damn must suck, my break's tomorrow, lucky me."

Tifa rolled her eyes and left him by the car. "I'm fine with it, more time to spend with him. Just getting frustrated with everything lately is all."

Putting his hands in his pockets he followed after her at a jogging pace. "Why now? You've been here for a while, something happen?" He tilted his head like a curious puppy.

"I haven't the slightest clue, been thinking too deeply into stuff I guess." She shrugged her shoulders and continued her walk

Sia nodded in understanding, and figuring he wasn't going to get anyway fast, decided to drop the subject. "So seeya whenever kay Lockhart?"

"Okay, see you later Sia." She turned her head to look straight at him and cracked a smile. He returned it then walked off himself, disappearing from her sight.

When he was gone she switched the smile for a frown. He had to be angry, he couldn't stay in a good mood forever, sure he could scare the crap out of people whilst in his officer mode, but he put that on. He was too cheery, and it secretly it annoyed her deeply, buy she had enough manners not to say it to his face. She felt like shit most the time, she didn't want to smile, only Synda could actually make her smile from her heart, no one else.

Literally shaking the thought from her head before it consumed her, she decided it wasn't worth being bothered about right this moment, she might as well ignore it and go home.

Tifa got to her car in only a minute, and was about to enter when she heard an odd sound. She lifted her head and looked around, seeing nothing but empty paths. A spark of curiosity hit her then and she tiptoed away from her car for a better look. By this point she had recognised the sound as crying, and from the sounds of it by a woman or young girl. Her next look received the same result as the first, absolutely nothing. By this point a small, but surely there, feeling of worry hit her. It was late at night and no one else was around, why would they be out here?

Finally Tifa spotted them, when she took a glance around the corner of the police station. Sitting on a step outside a side door in the alleyway, was a sobbing teenage girl. She watched her interestedly for a second before choosing to find out what was wrong and why she was here. With quick and quiet steps she snuck up on the girl, only letting her presence be known when she was right by her side.

"Are you alright?" She questioned, her pose cautious as she wished not to scare the poor girl, the last time she'd tried to help someone who was crying their eyes out they ran away at the sight of her uniform.

The teenager yelped and jumped out in fright. Tifa realised then that she recognised her, she was the girl who the chief had gone off his head at a week before. She had short boy's length black hair, and fearful grey eyes edged with tears. She was dressed in a black tank top and a mini skirt of the same colour, both made of leather. Her brown belt held up a tattered blue blanket, tied around her in the style of a skirt, short and the front and long at the back. One hand held a grey bag, obviously full of her belongings and the other clung to a suitcase with the oddest lock Tifa had ever seen, which just so happened to be handcuffed to her wrist.

"Go away." She mumbled forcefully before another round of tears streamed down her face. Tifa frowned and placed a sympathetic hand on her shoulder.

"It's alright I'm not going to hurt you. Why are you out here? How old are you?" She questioned.

At first she was sure she wasn't going to be answered, the girl didn't stop her crying at all. But after a time the tears dwindled to none, though she shook as she held them back.

"I'm fifteen." She mumbled, "And I'm out here because I'm not allowed back, he told me I had to sleep on the streets tonight."

Tifa nodded with a grim expression. Her mind fell back to the memory of when she'd seen the girl last week, and of how Sia had informed her of the fun little fact that despite the fact she was no more than a teenager, she was indeed a prostitute. The officer had some good ideas who 'he' was. Regardless of her thoughts of how rude it would seem of her, she felt she needed to confirm it.

"You're a prostitute aren't you?" She questioned in a serious tone.

The girl froze up, and her tears started up again, making her shake violently. Through them she nodded, and covered her face with her hands, trying to wipe them away.

Tifa patted her on the shoulder, not knowing how on earth to respond, but knowing she couldn't just leave her alone now.

"So what's your name, Mine's Tifa if you're interested in knowing it."

When the girl lifted her head back up, even with all the tears her quizzical face was easy to see. 'Why was she asking such trivial questions' she must be thinking.

"Angel, nice to meet you…I guess." She stumbled over her words uncomfortably.

Tifa thought about the name 'Angel' for a second, the asked.

"That's a lie isn't it?"

Surprisingly she nodded yes right after the words left her mouth. But she spoke nothing of it; Tifa took it as she didn't want to continue the subject. So she asked another question,

"So Angel, do you have anywhere to go tonight?"

Angel wiped away the tears that were slowly becoming less and less. "If I did I wouldn't be here!" She grumbled and lowered her head to look at the ground.

"Okay then."

When she took note of the unfitting cheery tone of the officer's voice, she raised her head back and saw she even happened to be smiling, she opened her mouth to yell at her but predicting her words Tifa cut in and said.

"Why don't you stay with me then, if you haven't anywhere else?"

Angel blinked in surprise, taking a step back, then raised her voice to a yell and said, "No I couldn't, you don't have to be nice to me I'm nothing but a fallen woman, what do I matter!?"

Tifa frowned sadly, giving her a sympathetic look, and simply replied. "Everyone matters in some way, don't have that mindset."

The girl didn't look convinced, believing the woman not to believe her own words she harshly questioned, "Fine, what do you matter for?"

"For my son, I live to make sure he is happy and has every opportunity he can get his hands on."

She blinked in surprise again, not expecting the answer to come so fast and certainly not expecting that answer at all. The woman in front of her was young; having a child was a shock.

Tifa held out her hand and offered for her to take it. "Angel you have to matter in some way, take my offer. Sure I don't have a spare bed but a couch is much better than a concreted alleyway."

Angel hesitated, but without any more of a fight took her hand, muttering, "You remind me of someone."

Tifa smiled, "Really now? I'd like to meet them."

Angel took her sights off her bright smile, choosing instead to gaze at her partly destroyed heels. She let Tifa lead her to her car, convinced that she didn't deserve this sympathy.

* * *

**Hope you liked.**

**I don't really like how I wrote that last bit, please tell me if it's actually alright or not I can't trust my own judgement on anything. Today when I found out I got a 6 on my performance in Drama I ripped the piece of paper to pieces, teacher flipped at me. I'm paired up with the same girl who ruined my last two performances so I'm ignoring her so she doesn't do it a third time. She started sulking the second things didn't go her way. **

**Fallen woman is a really old term, pretty sure it's actually for people like teenage mothers or unmarried mothers. Calling herself that shows how ashamed she is of herself.**

**Review please, I haven't been getting many lately since I wrote DATW, that got 6 and two PMs that kinda were a review themselves...yet it had 1100 hits in that one update. Over a thousand people are doubting my insanity. Bitches.**

**You people are starting to be the same as them. It hurts, there's a reason I feel like going into my sister's room and demolishing it.**

**Jya ne,**

**~Serah Villiers Valentine**


	6. Memories

**(5,494 words) Sorry it's been so long since I last updated! I took december off from Fan fiction and I was in Queenland in january (no internet for two weeks!) I wrote this a month ago but my beta only finished this earlier today. She was doing her own stuff, which was pretty rude since I see her at school and I do have the chance to remind her about it but she still wasn't doing it. She didn't edit this very well so sorry if there is mistakes. Sorry Fang if you read this but you're not a very good beta. Keep to writing. Claire is my beta now.**

**Hope you enjoy Nyan!**

* * *

6) Memories

* * *

_A puff of smoke wafted through the air above her, before a cold wind swept it off. She sat at the top of the stands; at the bottom was a sport's field. Mostly it was used for football, as the posts signalled. Sometimes they'd tie nets to them and use it for soccer, but not as many liked it. The team didn't have enough members this year same as the one before. It didn't make it, so there were no matches this year._

_The school was small, as was all the towns in the surrounding area, cut off from the world by mountains. It sucked, but then again everything sucked too. School sucked since they offered three sports as their extracurricular activities, nothing else. But sport sucked too. Nowadays whenever she remembered to this day, to this year, it occurred to her how stupid she'd been to truly believe all this. She called it a phase since it wasn't like she had gone through anything bad that made her like this. Though when she thought about it, what she believed as a teenager was scarily similar to what she believed in now, but the difference was she hid it._

_She took a puff on the cigarette she loosely held in her right hand, before leaning back. To her left was a half empty bottle of alcohol, which at the age of seventeen she certainly shouldn't be drinking just yet. She'd learnt good ways of hiding her bottles and her cigarettes, so her dad knew nothing of both their existences. She leaned further back; her head came to rest on the cold stone step right at the top of the stands. It was frozen from the cold weather. From this position she could clearly see the snowflakes falling down from a cloudy sky, and a fringe of an atrocious looking bleached blonde hair. Something that she also thought now was how horrible it had looked, but back in those days she hadn't cared. Perhaps she knew how unfitting it was on her, and her much of a mess she had been too, though maybe she'd wanted people to think little of her, to think she was a worthless moron set on ruining her life._

_"Hey so that's where you are," a voice she knew well said, appearing from the side. She turned her gaze to the short boy as he sat down on the steel seat next to the steps she occupied._

_"What?" she growled. He flinched, not expecting the tone one tiny bit. She had changed quickly from the kind girl he used to know, and he wasn't used to this 'new' her. In fact he wanted to make her change back, and he was persistent about it. Though she had new friends, new look, new personality, he still followed her around like they had when they were younger. Maybe he hoped to do something, to say something, that'd make her regret it and become who she once was. She didn't know; it wasn't like she was a mind reader. Frankly she just wanted him to go away, to get him to stop bothering her; she was a different person now, was that so hard to believe? Guy's had only one good use anyway and she wasn't even interested in that, unlike the rest of her group. She just loved the calm she'd feel after downing a bottle of alcohol. It'd blot out everything, so she didn't need to think, and she didn't need to worry about anything at all. It put her at peace._

_The boy shuffled uncomfortably for a moment, it told her instantly that he didn't have a reason to be here, nor did he have one thing to say. He just didn't want to keep away from her for too long, fearing that if he left her alone she'd sink deeper._

_"I'd just been wondering where you were. I ran into your dad while walking home. He's looking for you, he's worried," he said after some thought. It was the truth no doubt, but it had nothing to do with why he was here._

_She nodded, and eyed with suspicion his concerned expression. "Why are you here?"_

_"I just said-"_

_"I know. I'm not drunk." She scowled at him before continuing. "But that's not why you're really here. Dad's always freaking out about me, always been that way, was since mum died. But you're not helping him; he has nothing to do with this at all. You just think that being with me is going to stop me from sinking-" he opened his mouth to speak but she silenced him with a finger, before angrily raising her voice at him._

_"What are you trying to do, who do you think you are? Are you trying to save me? From what, I ask you from what? Those new friends who secretly hate my guts? Well you know I know they do and I don't give a crap about it. Are you going to save me from myself then? How, how on earth are you meant to go about that? Can't you even think for a second that maybe I want this!?"_

_He opened his mouth, tensed up, then closed it; deciding against it. He shook his head, his expression showing his pain without a word needed to be said between them. They'd known each other for years, it was impossible to trick each other now. They didn't need to speak, they could just look at each other and know what they were thinking. And that was how he knew that she was lying to herself, and was just too upset to notice._

_She hated it, she'd say it 'sucked', but then again so did everything else to her._

_"I know you don't want this. You're angry for no reason and you're trying to ignore it by drowning your worries in alcohol. You're a kid, stop this."_

_She slapped him._

_"Don't talk like you know me!" she screamed._

_"I do know you! I've known you since before your mother died. Dear lord I of all people know who you are!" he yelled back at her._

_She turned silent, and bit her lip. She didn't think he was right, not one bit, but she was annoyed. What could she say that could end this conversation? But she never completed that thought, for out of the blue he pulled her into a hug._

_"Eh?" she mouthed, confusion replacing the anger._

_"I love you. I don't want you to hurt yourself. I'm not trying to save you from yourself, but I don't want you becoming worse than you are because then I doubt you'll ever be the same again. I'm scared of that happening; I don't want to imagine it."_

_She tried to say something in response, but no words formed, all were lost in her throat. If the hug hadn't put her in shock, the 'I love you' certainly did._

_He let her go, his expression dead serious; which made her heart beat faster when it hit her that each word had been completely true. His first sentence of no exclusion._

_He stamped on the packet of cigarettes she'd left on the ground, and before she could do anything about it picked up the half empty bottle and threw it, it smashed on the silver seats down below, right before the field._

_"EEH!" She gasped in shock, kneeling down to see the damage done to her cigs, checking if any could be recovered._

_"You're better without them trust me." He forced his voice to stay steady, he was facing much inner pain, but he was stubborn to not let them show through. " But you're not better off from those who love you."_

_He left her alone with those words. Her gaze lingered on the spot he had stood, before it dropped to the ash slowly mixing in with the gathering snow._

_"So you're saying I should be with you?" But he was already gone, and didn't hear it._

* * *

Tifa's eyes fluttered open slowly, her mind gradually taking in the grey roof in direct view of her gaze. The room was dark, tiny sprinkles of dull sunlight came in from her window. It was almost sunrise she reckoned; otherwise it'd be far brighter. She turned onto her side and frowned, it'd been quite a while since she'd had that dream. It was funny, that out of everything that her mind could have chosen, it decided to make that memory become a repetitive dream. Maybe seeing that blonde boy a couple weeks back had set it off again, he did have the same hair colour after all. Subconsciously she picked up a strand of hair and began twirling it around her finger, only noticing of course when she spotted the movement in the corner of her sight. She let out a quiet chuckle and stopped it. She did however hold the strand of jet black hair in front of her face, whilst deep in thought. It looked much better natural than it had back then, maybe she'd only bleached it because she'd thought that if she had had the same hair colour as him that their connection wasn't entirely severed…maybe? Her memories of that time were blurred thanks to all the alcohol she'd drunk.

She regretted her actions from that time; she was never able to fully recover. It was something that could have been so easily avoided most likely, though she still wasn't quite sure what had caused her to change. She was rather glad that she had changed back, if not perfectly. She had Synda to thank for that, though when thinking about it, it was impossible not to change considering she did become pregnant at the sweet young age of eighteen.

Shaking the thought out of her head before it bothered her, she began to realise the sound coming from the living room. She raised an eyebrow and lifted herself up into a sitting position. It'd be clearer now that she didn't have a pillow blocking one ear. Almost immediately did she notice it was Synda making all the noise, and it was mostly him just running around. She glanced at the clock: 5:45. It was a day off today so she hadn't any need to be bothered by time herself, but most certainly it'd be putting the building's other occupants into one hell of a bad mood.

It was right before she was going to get up and go investigate, did Synda open the door himself and rush in. The young boy made a whimpering sound as he hopped up onto his mother's lap. She patted his head, flattening his horrible bed hair before asking in a kind tone, hiding her tiredness, "Oh Synda what's wrong?"

"There's a stranger out there!" He cried, literally as tears soon followed. He dug his head into his mother's chest, whimpering some more. Tifa pattered his head and laughed, quietly.

"Don't worry," she comforted him with a soft motherly tone of voice, "She's not bad. She had nowhere to go so mamma let her stay here is all. She was here last night too but Synda didn't notice since he had a fever and couldn't leave his bed the next day. Okay?"

The little boy nodded, letting his mother wipe away his tears. "She doesn't mean anything bad. If she did mamma wouldn't let her stay here now would she?"

He nodded, and jumped off her lap. He went to go back out but just before he did Tifa stopped him with,

"Oh Synda?"

"Yeah Mamma?" He turned slightly.

"Did you sneak into Jessie's stash again?" She questioned in a light voice.

"Nooo." He shook his head.

"Then why is there chocolate all over your face? She wouldn't be awake yet and Jessie doesn't share her chocolate."

Realising he'd been caught out Synda put an extremely cute puppy dog look on his face and turned fully around; an attempt to use his cuteness to get out of it. Tifa smiled at it, seeing as it was adorable and all, but she still put her hands on her hips and told him.

"Oi, that's mean. What have I told you about stealing her chocolates? You'll apologise to her when she wakes up, and if you do it again I'll take some of your toys away for a week. See how you like that!"

On the threat of his toys being taken away, Synda cried and ran back up to his mum sobbing, "Nooo nooo, not mah toys! Nooooo!"

She smiled weakly and ruffled his hair. "Don't worry, I won't do it unless you steal her chocolates again. You know stealing is wrong."

"I won't ten. I relly won't!" He dug his head into her lap.

So to calm him down she replied, "Then I won't take your toys away. See? It's all good. Now come on I'll let you watch some cartoons."

Right away he cheered up, as if he hadn't been crying a moment ago at all. He giggled and ran out the room. Waiting in front of the TV for his mother to come and turn it on, then switch it to his cartoons.

It was after about ten minutes of sitting next to a giggling Synda watching one of his favourite cartoons did Tifa hear muffled mumblings coming from the couch. She twisted her head to see the sleeping girl on the couch rousing from her sleep.

She'd said her name was 'Angel', but considering the girl's situation, it was more than likely a lie. Why on earth would a child prostitute give an officer her name so easily? She hoped to eventually get the real one, but for now Tifa was content with calling her by 'Angel'. She wore the very same black leather singlet top and mini skirt of course, though the blanket she'd had with her was now being used as an actual blanket along with a thick brown one Tifa had fished from the closet in Barret's room, after she had gotten his permission. The bag with her belongings was next to the couch, though as Tifa had seen earlier all it was was a hair brush, two pairs of sandals and a cocktail dress. Not much at all. The suitcase with the odd lock was as it had been, handcuffed to her wrist. It was positively one of the weirdest things she'd seen someone do when trying to keep something of theirs safe. Whatever it had inside remained to be a mystery, just like how it remained to be impossible for her to convince Angel to take it off her wrist.

Angels grey eyes opened slowly, right off she caught Tifa's gaze, and noticed the darkness of the room. She edged her neck upwards, to look over at a window, the sun was about to come over the horizon. So it was still early. She returned her gaze to what it had been when she'd woken up, catching Tifa's gaze again as intended.

"Hello," she spoke up drowsily.

Tifa nodded, mouthing the word herself before going to apologise. "I'm sorry if Synda woke you up. You frightened him so he woke me up. I had to bribe him with cartoons to settle him down."

Angel nodded in understanding. "That's fine. I've woken up earlier before. Most days I'd wake up early back home so I could watch the sunrise. I didn't like home but it had nice sunrises. It was really peaceful so I liked it."

Tifa caught a slight tone of annoyance when she mentioned home, however for the rest of it she sounded rather peaceful. "Didn't take you as the type that watches sunrises."

The younger girl shuffled on the couch, trying to find a more comfortable position, when it didn't work out she sat up instead. "I'm not usually. But as I said that place has nice sunrises. You think the ones here are nice you should see over there." It was funny, but her tone was completely different from the last, almost boastful.

Tifa laughed when Angel finished her sentence. "So where are you from then? I can tell you're not from anywhere near Midgar."

"Well I don' think you are either but that doesn't mean I'd ask," she grumbled.

"I'm from Nebelheim so no, I'm not. It's very different from here too. Though on the days where the sun wasn't covered by the clouds, the sunrise was nice." She decided to have an attempt at boasting about her home town too, but out of habit she ended up adding, "Though frankly I do think here has a better one, it's just that it was nice actually seeing one and that made it seen amazing." Which ruined it.

"Hey I'm not going to tell you where I'm from just because you told me where you're from."

"I was never implying that." Tifa responded, grinning at their random argument of sorts.

There was a pause. "So do I win? About the sunrise thing I mean."

Tifa shrugged. "Don't know, how do I know you're not lying if you won't tell me where it is you're from?"

"How do I know you're not?" Tifa chuckled when Angel's annoyed tone shone through. She was glad, even if it was an argument. Because it was something positive and meant that this girl wasn't just a big bundle of sadness.

As it went on, Synda could only look on confused, not understanding a word of it.

* * *

Aerith strode down the corridor at a hasty pace. She never liked being in one of the building's hallways when she was all by herself. She hated it enough when she had Zack with her, but alone made it so much worse. She wasn't the type of person who usually lived here, so people saw that as her being an easy target. Still even so when she was by herself and some creepy stranger decided by themselves that she was a prostitute, nothing stopped her from kicking them where it hurts. She was nice, but it she had no one else to protect her she'd do it herself.

She had two bags full of groceries, since they'd been running low. She didn't know where Zack put all his money and she'd only been given enough to buy the necessities. It was enough at least, since usually when Zack felt like having something different he'd go outside to a café or restaurant.

She was almost at her apartment when she heard familiar sounds. She was tempted to roll her eyes. 'Meanie's at it again,' she thought. She dropped the bags by the door, taking a quick look to make sure no one was around to steal them. When it was clear she glanced around the corner to see what was going on this time. The meanie was screaming his head off just like always, at a girl she was glad wasn't Angel this time. Though it caused her to wonder where on earth that girl had gotten off to; Meanie had forced her to sleep on the streets again but she never came back. He was more than angry over it, so snapping for no reason was normal at the moment. In fact the girl he was yelling at may have done nothing at all. Absolutely nothing.

"How dare you say that to me! To me! You have no fucking right! You know that!?" He'd been a second away from hitting her across the face, she'd braced herself for it and everything, only Aerith hit him with a milk bottle instead.

He was almost knocked off his feet from the sudden hit to the back of his head. She hadn't put much force into it but well….it was a milk bottle after all, it'd hurt regardless. He pivoted to see the smiling brunette, holding the bottle with both arms.

He snarled, "What the crap was that for!?"

"Wow, in a really bad mood aren't we?"

"Jesus, are you blind!?" In no way was he about to calm down anytime soon.

"Is this about Angel?" She asked with an innocent tilt of her head, "Because it seems to be you got in this bad mood when she disappeared. Not like I'd blame her if she ran off, you are an arse." She grinned despite the words she was saying. It wasn't like her to be so rude, but it was fun messing around with him. Something had happened which made his temper so short, but that part she wasn't interested in.

"Scat little bug." He went to swipe at her but she stepped back as she poked her tongue out.

"I'm not a bug you are!" With that she ran off before further happened.

"What the crap's that supposed to mean!"

Aerith made no attempt to reply, she continued back to her apartment at a racing pace. Of course she would've gotten there in less than ten seconds, it wasn't like she was far away, except she ran into a man the moment he took a step around the corner. She grabbed her nose in pain, as it'd been the thing to hit first. She became unsteady from the unexpected impact, so before she plainly fell over she lowered herself to the ground to regain her sense of balance.

"Are you…" She heard the man begin to speak but suddenly stop. She looked up to see who it was, still holding onto her nose, to spot long silver hair which belonged to only one person in existence as far as she was concerned.

Her face went red as she began to laugh from embarrassment. "Of course it's you, it's always you."

Sephiroth lowered himself to the ground to be level with her, well, at least as level as he could be considering the height difference. "You alright?" He asked in his deep voice. It was hard to tell if she was hurt or not with her laughing as she was.

Aerith removed her hand to show her nose was now red. "It's red isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Thought so. But it doesn't hurt so you don't have to worry." She shook her head. "I run into people all the time anyway so I'm used to it even when it does hurt."

"Yeah I can tell that." So far she'd literally bumped into him three times this month alone. Both had long given up counting the other times, and she would have certainly given up counting how many people she ran into all up. It seemed to be a problem for her from the looks of things.

Aerith picked herself up, patting down her dress. "I'd say I hope I don't do it again but we both know that's a lie."

Sephiroth stood up himself, stifling a laugh. "So it's more like see you later then?" He chuckled as he walked off. She nodded despite that he could not see it.

He was a good guy, he wasn't doing anything bad; he was like her in that way. He was just well…here. She knew why even when most people didn't, but that's just because she'd met him before she'd been living here. But she knew best to keep it a secret.

* * *

Tifa hurried down the staircase on fear she'd be late to work. Synda was content with watching cartoons like always, though for once not sneaking into Jessie's stash beforehand. It appeared her threat to take away his toys if he did again had finally gotten through to him. He didn't have that many in truth, but those he did he adored.

It'd been a little over a week since she had taken in Angel, the girl remained to be awkward near the others; especially Barret, who gave her cold looks each time he saw her. He was being cruel but refused to admit he was, though it was as plain as the sun on a sunny day. 'He didn't trust her' was all they could get out of him. It wasn't as bad with Biggs and Wedge, as they had nothing against her, but she still kept her distance. Jessie was trying to be nice to her, but Angel didn't respond much to her, and her kindness went to waste as it was virtually ignored as Angel, like with the others, kept her at arms-length.

Tifa was almost at the door when she heard Barret yelling, again. She turned her head, seeing both him coming towards her and behind him Marlene running out of her room and sneaking up the stairs to go secretly watch cartoons with Synda. The later she didn't mention when Barret began to speak.

"That girl's hanging out the back again-"

"But she's been doing that for a week, what's the problem?" Angel had quickly developed the habit of staying by herself in the side alley accessible by the back door of the bar. This place was alien to her, and obviously she wasn't perfect in the head, so it was going to take her a long time to adjust. Of course initially she was going to try and be alone.

"You didn't let me finish." Barret growled, "There's some guy out there with her. I don't know who he is but I don't trust them one bit!"

Tifa had to restrain herself not to face palm. "Look Barret, I really need to be getting to work now. If you think there's a problem maybe try to deal with it yourself. I don't think there's something wrong, you don't have to presume things are a certain why, when there's more chances of it being exactly opposite of what you think." She left him with that, knowing that if they really got into a conversation on this topic she'd be more than a little late.

Barret scowled, not liking the way she had said that. It was as if she had put herself above him frankly, and that wasn't like her at all from what he had gotten to see of her. Still, he decided it was best not to call her back; work was important after all. So he decided to deal with it himself, not because she had said it, but more because he could tell no one else would bother. They'd follow her line of thought and believe he was overreacting. He didn't want to trust that girl; so what? Considering what she did for a living how was he supposed to go right into trusting her completely? She was suspicious.

Barret turned around and headed for the back door. He opened it to see the two out the back as they had been before. Angel was sitting atop a closed rubbish bin, whilst the man, clearly much older than she, sat on the ground with his back to the wall. He wore a pair of black pants and a crinkled white button up shirt with a tie done up loosely around his neck. His shoes were scuffed and faded. His dark hair was messy and unbrushed, ending at the bottom of his neck, his fringe almost covering his eyes. In the hand furthest away he held a bottle, of what Barret couldn't see. On the hand closest he spotted a golden ring, glinting in the minute amount of sunlight that reached the back alley. Both he and Angel seemed to be deep in a conversation of sorts, but the onlooker cared not for its contents.

"Oi, what're you two up to?" he called out.

Angel's eyes snapped to his in shock, as she hadn't realised someone else was there; the man however calmly turned his head a mite, his expression blank, showing he cared not for the other man's presence.

"Nothing," Angel grumbled, looking away before Barret noticed that it had upset her how he seemed to so strongly believe something had to be going on here, just because of what she was. "I'm talking to a friend, so what? You don't need to go presume things. It's rude."

The man stayed silent, but nodded slightly.

Barret scowled at the rude tone, especially since she had said it was him being rude. "Don't talk to your elders like that, kid." He grunted. "And how am I supposed to be so sure nothing is going on, I don't know who this guy is-"

"You don't know who I am." Angel snapped; much to his surprise, since Barret had taken her for the quiet type, only coming off as rude from hurt. Her last sentence had been rather loud after all. "I already said you don't need to presume things. This. Man. Is. Not. My. Client." Each word had lots of emphasis put onto them as well as being laced with anger. "You should go away before you put me in a bad mood because I'll make you regret it!"

Barret blinked twice in surprise. He'd gotten rather quickly that she wasn't the quiet shy type as he'd initially pinned her as…but he hadn't taken her for short tempered. And when he took in consideration the place she came from, he didn't want to know what 'make you regret it' meant coming from her.

Scowling, Barret backed off and shut the door behind him, leaving them along as it had been. Through the walls of the building they heard him grumble about her. Angel frowned thinking about how loud he had to be being if they still heard it, she felt sympathy for those still in the building. She hoped that nice woman was already gone.

Angel sighed, and leaned back a mite. "What is with him?"

"What's wrong with a lot of people in the world," the man beside her muttered, taking a swig of the bottle of wine he'd been holding by his side. His voice was deep, and cold.

She rolled of the bin's lid and landed cat like before sitting by his side. "Why do you have that anyway? You don't usually drink it." She asked flatly.

"It was the only thing left in the cabinet." He answered simply.

She pouted childishly at his short answer; not like she had expected differently but it still annoyed her. His short answers were practically forcing her to ask more questions: if she just let things go normally a conversation with him was bound to last a minute, and that wasn't fun at all.

"Do people usually judge you from what you look like too?" She rested her head on his shoulder, seeing if it would merit a reaction, but being so used to her habits, it got nothing in return.

"People are judging you from your attire and what they know you are-"

"'Cause that's not rude at all," she muttered, but let him continue,

"Sometimes they do, but I doubt it's as bad. People think worse of people wearing miniskirts and fishnet stockings than they would with someone that has messy hair."

"But I don't wear fishnet stockings."

"You know what I mean," he sighed as she became increasingly childish. It was just how she was when in a good mood.

"Hmm, I guess." She jumped up, for no particular reason. They spent a minute in silence before she out of boredom pushed off the wall and began spinning, singing a song under her breath.

"Sha la la…."

The man took another swig. He listened to her song, having nothing better to do. She was a horrible singer, but he didn't care too much about that.

"It's a shame that you have to call me a friend just so you can get people off your back."

She stopped her spinning when he said that. He wasn't the talkative type, so she was the one who'd start off the conversation – it surprised her that he'd spoken up about that without her putting mention to it first. "People are stupid since they think whores don't have feelings. I can like someone if I want, who are they to tell me I can only be with someone in a physical way? Idiots."

"People believe whatever people tell them. The truth doesn't mean anything to them. I can't blame them now for having such joint decisions. They may as well have been brainwashed."

"True." Angel sighed and sat beside him, the area quickly becoming silent again. She rested her head on his shoulder as she had before but said nothing else; instead she began to gaze at the gold ring on his finger. It was pretty, but it sure had nothing to do with its appearance or why he continued to wear it.

"Are you ever going to tell me about her Vince?" He followed her line of sight, and saw that her eyes were locked onto the ring.

"Not yet."

"Then I'll wait. Don't think you can get out of it."

He sighed. "Already knew that with you it was impossible."

* * *

**Nyan done.**

**Hope you enjoyed, please review 'cause no one has been lately and that's real depressing.**

**Check out my Fiction Press account 'Aurora Blade'. I'm putting a wonderful story up there soon. May need a strong stomach for it though...**

**Jya ne,**

**~Serah Villiers Valentine**


	7. Never going home

**(2,829 words) Short I know, I'll try to make it longer next time. I keep doing nothing in this story, I'll force myself to do something with the next one.**

**By the way, I'm putting all my stories on partial hiatus so I can get my oldest story Organisation REI done. DATW (my most popular story) and Wings (My favourite/most unpopular (sadly)) get priority over everything else besides REi of course. So updates will get slower except those two will be about the same.**

**Any way, enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

Chapter 7) Never going home

* * *

Tifa yawned as she stretched her arms and leaned forward in the chair. She was sitting in the kitchen half-asleep, switching between watching the cartoons she had turned on for Synda, and nibbling on the toast she had made herself for breakfast. It'd gone cold a while ago and she didn't actually want to eat it since both pieces were burnt, but she didn't want them to go to waste either. She didn't have work today, but since she neither needed to go shopping for anything nor even have anything to clean up, all she basically had to do all day was laze about waiting for it to end. She might've used this as an opportunity to have a day out with Synda, but she was too tired from her last shift. It had been perfectly fine, almost. Some drunken moron had a two hour argument with her when she told them to calm down. She would've just gone and left but he kept grabbing her wrist and halting each attempt. Somewhere down the line he tried to attack her and another officer who'd tried to assist her. He'd been charged for assaulting a police officer then; the poor guy could've avoided it so easily, if only he hadn't been so idiotic.

At the moment Synda was perfectly content watching his cartoons, she hoped they didn't end up boring him, because she didn't want him asking her if they could go somewhere, she knew she'd cave in to his adorable pleas and say yes, even when she really didn't want to at all.

Tifa finished her breakfast and shoved the crumbs in the bin before leaving the room to go have a shower. Synda would be fine on his own only for a couple minutes, she doubted he would even notice that she'd left the room until the water started running and he'd hear it through the wall. He got very engrossed in those cartoons. She agreed with other people her age that they really sucked compared to the ones they got to watch when they were little, but they were the only one's he'd ever known so she guessed that they must be good to him.

After the shower she went into her room to get dressed, spotting in the corner of her eye that Marlene had sat down and joined Synda in watching the TV. Marlene was seven but her and Synda got along just fine even though he was only a couple months off five. She said that he was like a little brother to her, and she'd always wanted a little sibling that she could look after. It was cute but made Tifa feel sad that even Marlene got to see him more than she got to. She dismissed the thought as she dried her hair with a towel, if it was a depressing thought than she shouldn't waste her time with it. She hardly remembered she'd even been thinking it by the time she was getting her top on, though it was easy to forget when someone went and walked in the room. She didn't notice them immediately as they'd entered quietly, but they revealed their presence when they said to themselves,

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that." Tifa jumped at the sound of a person's voice but quickly calmed down when she found it was only Jessie. It wasn't like she had anything the girl hadn't seen before. After calming down she hastily put on her shirt and questioned her about what she'd said.

"Forgot about what?"

"That tattoo, I'd forgotten you had it." Jessie answered simply, an embarrassed smile present. "Kinda silly eh?"

"A little yes." Tifa shook her head; it'd barely been anything to comment on. She'd gotten it when Synda was two, so a little after she'd turned twenty. It was his name written in beautiful cursive below her left shoulder.

"Why does it say Synda by the way? Don't people, like, usually get their partner's name as a tattoo?" Jessie asked as she went over and sat on the bed. You could tell from her tone that she wasn't really interested in the answer, she was just asking for the sake of asking. Tifa answered her anyway.

"That's stupid don't you think? Love can be fickle, relationships can end so easily. Doesn't it make more sense to write the name of someone who can never erase their connection to you no matter what? Just because someone's your boyfriend now doesn't mean they will be in the future, but my son will always be my son."

"Nice answer." The other chuckled as she leaned backwards, nearly falling back on the bed.

"I've been asked before as you can tell. So why you up here anyway, did you have something to ask of me?

"Oh yeah!" Jessie's eyes went wide as she recalled the reason she was here in the first place. She jumped up off the bed and pointed a Tifa with a sudden excitement. "Nebelheim!"

"Eh?" Tifa tilted her head severely confused. What did the name of her home town have to do with anything?

"That's where you're from isn't it?"

"Yes, and?"

"You never told me no matter how many times I asked. Apparently you mentioned it to Angel, she didn't even have to fight for it or anything, you just said it!" Jessie shouted it like not telling her that one piece of information had been the meanest thing she could've possibly done, especially so since she'd so easily gone and told it to a near stranger who she'd only just met.

"I forgot about that." Tifa sighed, that was right, she'd been against talking about her past, so much so she'd even been at a refusal of telling everyone the town she'd come from. She answered 'the country' to anyone who asked. If she hadn't gone and forgotten that she wouldn't have told Angel.

"So is that where Synda's father is from? He is right?" Jessie asked, overly excited over a simple topic.

Tifa bit her lip and turned her head away. "That's not important. This isn't the time to talk about it." Her tone had gone from confused and embarrassed to crestfallen in only a moment, for her emotions had changed with the question.

Jessie smiled sympathetically. "Fine, later then. But you'll have to tell me one day, that's a promise!" She ran out of the room and back downstairs without a further word. Tifa didn't move from her spot for another five minutes, and after that she strode forward and crashed on the bed holding back tears. She didn't understand how she had come to feel so gloomy in only a matter of minutes, maybe she shouldn't have given herself some alone time with her thoughts, that never ended nicely. All she knew was that Synda's father was not someone she'd like to think about at the moment.

* * *

Aerith headed to her apartment at a hasty pace, for no amount of time would wipe away how much she hated walking through this place all by herself. She'd gone out for lunch, alone since she had no idea where Zack had gone off to. He was already gone by the time she'd woken up this morning. As she neared her room she overheard quiet voices from inside. She could tell right away that one of them was certainly Zack, being as loud as he was. She assumed the other voice belonged to Angeal, which would make the most sense. Zack had mentioned a couple weeks ago that some weird person was hanging around Angeal's place eavesdropping, he'd snuck up on the guy one time and asked him why on earth he was doing it, but didn't get much of an answer. All they knew was that some crazy person here went about fifty different people's rooms eavesdropping for the heck of it. Angeal was one of the unlucky few.

She guessed that Zack must've gone over to his place originally, and then that weird person had become unnerving and they'd gone back over here. Likely only a little after she'd left.

Not letting her thoughts wonder any longer, she opened the door to see if she'd gotten it right. Upon entering she saw Zack standing near a chair in the kitchen staring at his watch, Angeal was sitting on the couch adjacent. They were facing each other but it was clear that the younger had his attention firmly on the watch. He'd shouted something but as Aerith didn't pay attention to his words she didn't hear the full sentence. But she heard enough to understand that he had someone he had to go and meet up with.

"Ah jeez, I completely forgot! Is it alright if we continue this later?"

"That's fine, I was almost finished anyway." Aerith could tell from his tone that he found it somewhat stupid that Zack was about to rush out when it was only going to take another minute, and there was much doubt that he was in that much of a rush. But knowing Zack as well as he did, Angeal knew that he was going to zoom out of the room like an overexcited puppy no matter what was said to him.

"Thanks, seeya later then!" He turned around and almost ran smack bam into Aerith, who giggled at his shocked expression. "Whoa, Aerith didn't see you there." He laughed.

She smiled and said before side stepping. "Just be glad you didn't run into me. I only just got in don't think I was spying on you. Will you be back soon or will you be crazy late?" That was his problem, if he ever said he'd be gone for only a little while he'd come back at some ungodly hour in the morning.

"We'll see how things play out. I'm not too sure myself. Bye Aerith." He dashed out the door before neither of the other two even had time to move.

After a quick moment of silence, Angeal stood up with the obvious intention of leaving. He surprised Aerith when he talked. "That guy is the only person I know who's ever left before their guest. And it's not like this was the first time." He shook his head with a sigh, he didn't intend the words as mean, quite the opposite as he let out a short chuckle along with them.

"I know, though he's never had the chance to do that to me since I live with him." She giggled, ditching her brown jacket on a chair. It was too warm inside to keep it on.

"Hasn't he ever gone to your house? You were together long before you started living here weren't you?"

"Yes, but it was easier for me to visit him then the opposite way around. I did live in the slums after all. A lot of the addicts are there, it could've made things difficult." She explained.

"The slums? But I heard you went to a school on the plate. How on earth did you afford it then?" He questioned, his voice was full of disbelief. He'd heard from more than just Zack, of the school Aerith had attended. It was notoriously expensive and one of the best in Midgar. It should be impossible from someone from the slums to be able to attend.

"My mum and many of her friends put their money together so I could go. They wanted the best for me after all. I feel sorry for them, that all that money's gone to waste. I don't even have a job. I'd be too ashamed to go back and tell them that, I haven't gone home in years." She admitted, gazing down at her feet in embarrassment.

"How long exactly has it been since you last saw you mother?"

"Three years. It's too long to go back now. I know I must be making her very sad, but it's for the best."

"That's a terrible mindset." Angeal frowned and strode past her, he stood by the door but it didn't appear he intended to leave just yet.

If he had been listening more closely to her he might've heard her mumble, 'I didn't always have it', referring to what he'd said.

"Just a question, but will you stop calling Genesis 'meanie'? You know I'm the one who has to deal with him afterwards right?"

"I know and for that I'm sorry. But if he's going to be mean then mean is what I'm going to call him. It's his own fault for letting that get to him." Aerith stubbornly decided.

Angeal sighed. "Of course you'd say that." It was possible that some of Zack's stubbornness had rubbed off on her.

"Hey," she begun to ask, "Has he always been like that?"

"Of course not. He used to be much different; sometimes it's hard to believe that they're the same person. This life is terrible; it can send even the sanest person mad."

"But you seem perfectly fine."

"Sometimes I wonder about that, it's what makes me feel so bad about bringing Zack into this life. I know it was an accident, but I'll still forever regret it."

Aerith didn't respond to that, something was wrong with how he's gone and said it. It wasn't the words; it was his tone of voice. It was like he was hiding something, something he seriously needed to say, but chose not to despite knowing full well it could reap terrible consequences.

Angeal lowered his hand to twist the doorknob, but stopped as he recalled something else he'd forgotten to say. "Oh, another question if that's alright. But when will you tell Zack about what happened?"

"Eh?" Aerith tilted her head confused. He'd been a little too vague for her to have any idea what he was going on about. Angeal realised this and said another thing that would help clear it up for her.

"Seph told me about what happened a couple years back. I know you know why he's here, even when he's not a part of all this. But you know the details don't you? You're not simply just aware of what had occurred."

Aerith stiffened up, though only two sentences it was more than enough to know what Angeal's question had been referring to. In fact only the name would've been enough.

"That's mean, how could he say all that." She said it to herself, and despite knowing this the other saw it as no reason not to reply.

"Because we're friends. Don't worry; he never said a word to Genesis. Going off his dislike of you it may cause him to use it against you, and Seph doesn't want that happening. Let me say this, if you really care for Zack you'll tell him, no matter the consequences-"

"It's better if I don't tell him. It's better if I leave it in the past and let it get covered in dust and disappear from everyone's memories."

For what could've easily been five or so minutes, they stood dead still in perfect silence. Until Angeal uttered, "Again, that's a terrible mindset." Before walking out the door and leaving her alone.

When he was gone, Aerith frowned sadly before going into her bedroom and sitting down on the side of the bed. She sighed exasperatedly and leaned back, wishing for a window so as where she could see the light. But in this underground building she would've seen nothing but metal pipes. She bit her lip annoyed, though still somewhat happy she was alone and no one could see her in this mood. Zack had never seen her express anything but happiness, for the most part at least. The closest he'd come to seeing her as sad was when she'd tear up at movies. He didn't need to see her sad, worried, or angry. Because all her reasons to be so were in the past and in the past she would bury them.

"I don't care what anyone else says, I'm not going home and I'm not telling Zack anything."

* * *

**If that made no sense it wasn't suposed to. **

**Fun fact that I feel like mentioning for no particular reason: My aunt had a baby, and no one officially told me and my sister he'd been born. We had to confront our mother about it, and she couldn't believe that was true. It was especially fun because we had a friend over who'd had a major case of the giggles all night long. She couldn't stop laughing.**

**Please review, it'll be much appreciated.**

**~Serah Villiers Valentine**


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